The Blue Pheasant Flies On
by kingoffire1
Summary: Aokiji dies in his death-match against Akainu on Punk Hazard only to awaken in a strange place with heavy injuries. Now he is living out his second chance at life in this world while the circumstances of what happened constantly nag at the back of his mind.
1. Chapter 1

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 1: Not Quite Dead**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

 **A/N: Another Fairy Tail crossover here. I really should think about branching out more, but I like Fairy Tail's setting too much. It's so easy to adapt things to. This is a challenge that was pitched to me by 2015 Lewamus Prime and I really liked the premise and decided to give it a try. I am also looking for a beta for this story.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _'Flashback'_

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Punk Hazard**

Two very tall men stared at each other from across the remains of the island that had been designated their battlefield. One man had curly black hair and a long face compared to his opponent's square jaw and short hair. The curly-haired man had a series of extreme burns that covered the right side of his body from his waist up to his neck and was missing his left leg from half-way up his thigh down, which had been replaced by an ice prosthetic. The short-haired man was bleeding profusely from the right side of his face and neck. The two were panting in exhaustion from the tenth day in their battle to the death. Around them the very nature of the island had changed so that half of it was a burning wasteland and the other half was a frozen mountain range just from the intensity of their powers.

The curly-haired man was unable to support himself any longer and collapsed to the ground. He limply rolled over and looked up at the face of the man that had defeated him. He took satisfaction at the damage he had managed to inflict on the older man. "It appears that you win, Fleet Admiral Akainu." He mocked while struggling to breath. The battle between them had been the hardest fight for his life and he had lost it, so he was willing to act a little petty at the moment. "It appears that my "Lazy Justice" lost to your "Absolute Justice"."

"You put up a good fight, Admiral Aokiji." Akainu replied with a slight emphasis on his title. It didn't matter in the end. Akainu himself was both stronger and had the advantage over Aokiji's ice powers. If the man was only able to match 'Fire Fist' Ace's fire powers then he had no chance against Akainu's own magma powers that had burned the aforementioned fire user. "But you have lost. As you said, I will be the next Fleet Admiral of the Marines."

"If you're in charge of the Marines then I don't want any part of them." Aokiji told him.

Akainu let out a sigh. "I see. Then I accept your resignation, former Admiral Kuzan." Akainu lifted up his fist that was then turned into magma. "Goodbye."

Kuzan had known that his life was forfeited when he had been unable to maintain his fake leg and collapsed. He couldn't work under a man who believed in "Absolute Justice" and knew that Akainu wouldn't let him live with retiring after their fight to the death, the use of his real name instead of his moniker confirmed it. He regarded his end with the same calm expression he had always worn. His last words would forever be ingrained into Akainu's mind as a reminder as to the type of person Kuzan had been even with his fist punching through his chest. "Arara."

* * *

 **Mountains of Brago, X774**

Kuzan slowly opened his eyes and stared at the wooden ceiling above him. 'This is the afterlife?' He wondered, remembering dying when Akai- no, Sakazuki shoved his magma fist through his chest. 'I was expecting something… more.' While Kuzan wasn't a religious man by any definition he had still been expecting something more extravagant than the small wooden hut he apparently was in when he died. At least, if he wasn't immediately reincarnated. The opinions on what happened after death varied depending on who you asked and he had long ago given up on actually learning the truth. Unless he had managed to come across someone who had eaten a Devil Fruit that let them know the truth of what came after death and he actually remembered to ask them he wouldn't worry about it.

He couldn't sense anyone around him with his Haki and any attempt to move left him in unbearable pain, especially on his right side. 'Right, the fight.' A quick examination with his left hand revealed that someone had apparently found him in his injured state and had bandaged his wounds. But who could have done that? Judging by what he could sense of the weather he was on the frozen section of Punk Hazard, but the island had been uninhabited when he and Sakazuki had started their fight and even if someone had been able to avoid their detection they would have surely died or been exposed during their ten-day death match.

Kuzan then felt three people show up within his Haki's range, but he must be mistaken. Of the three people he felt, two of them were children just under an officer's power and the other was around a mid-level Vice Admiral's power. Something was wrong here. He would go along with things for now until he had a better grasp of the situation.

The door to the cabin was opened and Kuzan's eyebrows went up in surprise. The three people who had entered consisted of two young boys and a woman dressed only in their underwear. He knew that the temperature outside had to be freezing so why these people were running around nearly naked was beyond him. One of them might have eaten a Devil Fruit that could withstand the cold, but not all three of them. One boy had spiky silver hair that jutted back from his face and the other had spiky black hair that drooped down. Both had dark boxers on. The woman had chin-length purple hair and a very obvious figure that was only covered by a green bra and matching underwear.

"Sensei, he's awake." The silver haired boy pointed out to his apparent teacher. Odd. Kuzan would have marked them down for her kids.

The purple haired woman walked up to Kuzan's head and sat down next to him. "How are you feeling?" She asked while placing a hand on his forehead.

"Better than I thought I'd be." He told her, but his voice came out weak and scratchy. How long had he been here? Or had his throat been injured in the fight and he'd just not noticed? "How long-?" He was overcome with a coughing fit and unable to continue. Had he damaged his lungs?

"You've been here for a little over a week. We found you in the mountains covered in horrific burns while training." She informed him. She turned to the kids. "Gray, grab him a drink. Lyon, get some more bandages." The dark haired kid went to the sink so he had to be Gray and the silver haired kid must've been Lyon then. Good to know. Gray gave her a cup and she slowly let him drink from it. It was embarrassing, but he was in no position to argue. "Try talking now."

"Thank you." Kuzan said. His voice already sounded better. "Where am I?"

"I'm sorry. You must be confused. My name is Ur. This is Gray and the one who went to get the bandages is Lyon." Ur introduced herself and the boys to Kuzan. As if summoned by his name, Lyon arrived carrying a large roll of bandages and several tubes of some kind of medicine, probably for burns. "To answer your question, you're in my cabin. It's a couple of miles away from the nearest town." She began to roll out the bandages and started to take off his old ones. "You were hurt pretty badly. What happened?"

These people obviously didn't know who he was if they had to ask and he wasn't about to tell them his name while he was at their mercy and there was no help nearby. Most pirates would spring on the chance to take down an Admiral —well ex-Admiral— if they had the chance and he didn't know where his saviors' allegiance aligned. With his last memories being Sakazuki driving a fist through his chest, Kuzan was understandably paranoid about his current situation. Her mention of a town nearby was suspicious as well. In order for there to be a town then he had to have been taken off of Punk Hazard, but she said that they had found him in the mountains. It was all very suspicious and he would have to keep things close to his chest for the time. He then fell back to a strategy he had mastered while in the Marines. Lying.

"I don't know. I remember getting into a fight, but not much else." He said to cut off any further questions. Pretending to have partial amnesia was an old trick that worked quite well for him before. It gave an out for any future questions, yet still allowed him to know some basic things without being suspicious enough to warrant any in-depth analysis.

"You must have hit your head during the fight." Ur told him. She had finished unwrapping his wounds and Kuzan could finally see the full extent of his injuries. It was pretty bad. He had a massive amount of angry burns all along the right side of his torso and most of his right arm that ran all the way up to the side of his face. It was a miracle that he hadn't lost anything important and still had his arm. The remains of his left leg were burnt pretty badly as well and it would take a while to heal. Unfortunately he couldn't just turn into ice and negate the damage that way. It would have to heal on its own time. Ur noticed his gaze and explained. "I had the local doctor come here and look at you after we got you out of the cold. He was amazed that you survived both your wounds and the cold from the mountains. He did what he could to heal your wounds, but said that it would have to be left to time in order to heal and that it would scar pretty badly. You're better off here in the long run than at the local clinic."

Kuzan let out a grunt. He had been expecting that and thought that he had actually gotten off pretty lightly. He only lost one leg and his Devil Fruit would make that no problem at all. Something that she said was off though. "Why would I be better off here?" Was she a doctor? And if so then why was she training out in the middle of the snow without her clothes on?

Ur didn't say anything at first and just held out her hands over his wounds. A blue glow surround them and formed a seal in midair before a thin sheet of ice formed over it to help with the swelling. Kuzan stared at her in shock as the ice formed over his body. "Because I'm an _Ice Mage_." She told him with a small smile at the shock on his face. "Now what was your name?"

Kuzan's mind refused to process what he was seeing. It shouldn't be possible, couldn't be possible. He numbly answered her question while he was preoccupied with comprehending what was happening before him. He did retain enough sense to not use his more widely known moniker of Aokiji though. "Kuzan."

* * *

 **One Week Later**

Kuzan was finally able to sit up in his bead and was currently alone in the cabin while Ur and her disciples were training in the snow again. The swelling from his wounds had gone down and they only hurt whenever he tried to move them too much. For now he was keeping them in an ice cast so he wouldn't aggravate them. After Ur's reveal of her powers Kuzan had cited being tired still and she had quickly dressed his wounds and ushered the kids out. He had immediately attempted to use his powers and discovered that they were still functional. He had even broken off a toe in order to make sure that he could still regenerate. Later when she had given him dinner, fully dressed in a light colored jacket, black pants, and a dark tube top, Kuzan had questioned Ur on how she was able to use ice like that. The answer and subsequent explanation he had received showed that he was worse off than he thought.

From what had been described to him he wasn't even in his own world at the moment. There was no World Government, no Marines, and any pirates that existed were treated as a minor annoyance for the most part. Instead of Devil Fruit these people used magic that ten percent of humans could use as well as various species of monsters. There was an extremely diverse amount of magics that could be learned by multiple people. Ur was a master of _Ice-Make Magic_ and was teaching it to her students, which explained their lack of clothing when he first met them and why they had been up in the mountains when he had appeared.

This world apparently had literal demon as well, and one of them was nearby and had killed both Gray and Lyon's parents. Hence, why they were with her. How they matched up against some of the monsters of his world, such as Oars Jr, was still up for debate and he didn't plan on finding out anytime soon.

The amount of time it was taking him to heal was becoming increasingly frustrating. Ur and her students had become more comfortable around him and were asking him questions to help him recover his "lost" memories. He had been using half-truths and vague wording in order to satisfy them, but it wouldn't last. Ur had been shooting him second glances after some of his answers, but had refrained from saying anything for now. It was only a matter of time until she confronted him about it and he wanted to be gone before she reached that point. The only things that they knew about him was that he was in his late forties, was an ex-soldier, and wasn't from around here. One of the more difficult things to explain had been his height. Back in his own world there had been nothing out of the ordinary with being just under ten feet tall, with giants and dwarves running around the Grand Line height never really played a factor. However, here it was extremely out of place with over six and a half feet being well above the average. He had ended up hand-waving his height due to a lack of memory, but doubted that it was the last he would hear on the matter.

Kuzan looked down at his injured hand and flexed it, wincing slightly. But even if he left where would he go? He was a stranger from a different world with only basic knowledge of how the one he was in now worked. He had joined the Marines when he was younger in order to protect people and stop pirates from rampaging. Even after he had seen the horrors of what the World Government was willing to do and that not all pirates were evil he had stayed in order to rise up in the ranks and become strong enough to follow his own justice without repercussions. He may have never shown any ambition after reaching admiral, but that was because he was satisfied with Sengoku's rule and didn't see any need to improve. He thought that he showed plenty of ambition when he had fought Sakazuki for the title of Fleet Admiral. From what he could tell there wasn't really a need for anything like that here. Most of the guilds or the Magic Council that Ur had told him about took care of threats like that. For now he was stuck and had nowhere to go or a goal to achieve.

He sensed the return of the _Ice Mages_. Kuzan sighed. He would have to wait a little longer before making a move.

* * *

 **One Month Later**

Kuzan was able to finally move his right arm and side without suffering from too much pain and had started to begin light exercises in order to help his body recover from both its injuries and the time he had taken to heal, under the heavy supervision of Ur. She had threatened to finish what Sakazuki had started if he ended up hurting himself by overdoing things and ruining all of the work she had put into healing him. She had even gone as far as to make a prosthetic leg with her magic to help him walk around. It caused him to limp while he used it and Kuzan could have used his Devil Fruit powers to make a better leg, one that could bend while he moved and essentially replace what he had lost, but he wasn't willing to show off his powers at the moment. They would cause more problems than he could or was willing to afford, especially with the two kids. One was obsessed with revenge and the other worshipped Ur as if she was the pinnacle of power. He had seen many people that had gone down those paths, pirates and marines, and it usually ended badly. For now he was forced to be satisfied with practicing while they were away.

He was dressed in heavy clothes at the moment that Ur had modified to fit his large frame. His old clothes had been reduced to tatters and thrown away and none of the ones sold had a chance of fitting him. He had been grateful for her assistance and used the time she was sewing and the kids were asleep to ask her more about the world and magic. He learned many things from her about how things worked and would be forever grateful for that. This world seemed to work under the theory of a more relaxed justice than the Marines. The judges and rules varied by country and while the death penalty existed it was used a lot less often. Overall, Kuzan preferred this world's form of justice over his old one's. He found it closer to his "Lazy Justice".

He once again picked up the approaching presence of Ur and her disciples back from their grocery shopping in town. She wasn't willing to leave the kids alone with him, whether because she thought that he would bother them or vice versa Kuzan didn't know. Something was wrong though. Gray was moving faster than the other two and it appeared as if they were chasing him. Kuzan shrugged his shoulders and returned to the cabin. If it was important then he would learn about it soon enough.

* * *

This was worse than Kuzan would have guessed. Instead of another one of the little spats he had figured that Gray had gotten into with either Ur or Lyon the boy was on a warpath over that Deliora demon Ur had told him about earlier. He had barged right in and immediately started to gather up his things with the intention of leaving permanently. Ur had, of course, tried to stop him, but he wouldn't be swayed. They were currently shouting at each other loud enough to be heard over the snowstorm that had started shortly after their return.

"I am going to kill Deliora! There's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise!" Gray declared while heading for the door dressed for the cold in a white jacket.

"Deliora is too strong for you to face!" Ur shouted back. "He would crush you like a bug. If you go out that door you _will_ die!"

"NO! I will defeat him! I can do it!" Gray insisted. He threw open the door and prepared to step out into the storm.

"Stop! You can't defeat Deliora, Gray! You're not good enough, yet!" Ur told him.

Gray stood in the doorway and refused to face Ur. "Shut up. You don't know anything." He told her in a much lower volume than he had been using previously. This didn't last for long and he spun around to glare at Ur with an ugly look on his face. It contained all of the hatred that had been stewing inside of him since Deliora had taken everything away from him. "I'm going to avenge my mom and dad! You got something to say about that?!"

Ur saw that he was serious and delivered an ultimatum. "If you walk out now then I'll expel you!" Gray had stayed with her to gain power and she hoped he wouldn't be willing to give that chance up at the moment.

Gray didn't even hesitate as he turned to leave. "Sounds good to me!" His response shocked Ur and she wasn't fast enough to catch him as he began to sprint out into the storm.

"Gray!" She called after him to no effect.

Gray carelessly plowed through the freezing wind and snow with his head down. "If I die then it's your fault for not teaching me a more powerful magic." His words were said in frustration and anger and he never suspected that anyone would actually hear them. If he had looked back he would have seen the hurt look on Ur's face before it was lost to the storm.

"Arara." Gray froze at the sound of Kuzan's voice. The tall man seemed to appear out of the air next to him with a lazy expression on his face. "I hate to interrupt, but is that really something you should say to your teacher?" He asked with a bored tone.

Gray was startled by the man's appearance. From what he knew Kuzan was still heavily injured and should have difficulty moving, so how had he gotten ahead of him? And when did he even leave the cabin? He was sure that the man was there when he had been arguing with Ur earlier. He quickly recovered and attempted to brush him off. "It's true. All she taught me was _Ice-Make Magic_ and it isn't very good at all."

"So you're going to go after the giant demon that destroyed your home town with less than a year's worth of training and armed only with what you consider a "weak" magic?" Kuzan asked with an air of indifference. "You're only going to get yourself killed, boy."

"Shut up! You don't know anything. You're just an old cripple that's lucky he can remember how to put on his pants!" Gray yelled in anger.

"Oh?" Kuzan lazily stared down Gray and released some of his power, causing the boy to shake in his boots. "And what are you? A little brat that is running off half-cocked with barely an understanding of his power that will only end up meeting with his parents a lot sooner than he should. Tell me, do you really want your last words to your teacher and savior who took you in, saved you from a short life of loneliness, clothed you, fed you, trained you, and loved you to be throwing any of your shortcomings in her face and then dying without listening to what she had to say or getting a chance to apologize? Are you really that selfish and horrible?"

Kuzan's words cut deep into Gray, but instead of dissuading him it only served to make him angrier. "To hell with you, old man! You won't stop me! I will defeat Deliora!"

Kuzan's eyebrow rose up at Gray's reply. "I'm not stopping you." He motioned to the front of Gray that was wide open. "The only thing here that's stopping you is yourself. You're so blinded by your pride, guilt, and anger that you won't listen when you tell yourself that you can't do it." Kuzan lowered himself down so that he was looking Gray in the eyes. "You don't understand that you should listen to that voice inside that's telling you "you can't do it". Fear isn't there to hold us back, it's there to remind us that we are mortal and that there will always be something better than us. The trick is to learn when to listen to that fear and when to ignore it. Right now, you should open your ears, brat." Kuzan finished. He turned away and disappeared back into the storm with a burst of _Soru._ Kuzan reappeared in front of the cabin and frowned at his leg. The prosthetic that he wore had been unable to keep up with the kicks required for _Soru_ and had shattered halfway back. He would have to start remembering that he was missing a leg even if he replaced it with his powers. "Excuse me, what's going on?" Kuzan asked once he walked inside.

Ur had perked up when Kuzan entered thinking that Gray had come to his senses then slunk back down into her chair in disappointment when she saw it was Kuzan. She then jerked back up with a realization. "Where have you been?!"

"Outside." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I saw Gray running away pretty fast. What happened?"

"That stubborn dumbass is trying to take on Deliora alone. He'll get himself killed like this." Ur said.

"Aren't you going to stop him?"

Ur shook her head sharply, Gray's parting words still fresh in her mind. "No. I expelled him because he wouldn't listen to me and chose revenge."

"Okay~" Kuzan told her skeptically. He walked out of the room and into the library where Lyon was reading a book. He ducked to fit inside the doorway, but still managed to hit his head anyways. He was never going to get used to that. Lyon turned around with a start when he heard the noise and attempted to hide his book, but relaxed when he saw it was their injured guest. "Get your things together, kid. We'll be leaving soon." Kuzan advised him before turning around to leave.

"What do you mean, Kuzan-san?" Lyon quickly hid the book and followed the old man out of the room. "Why would we go anywhere in this storm?"

"To save your fellow idiotic student."

"But why? Sensei kicked him out because he wouldn't listen."

"Ur isn't the type of person to just abandon someone like that." Kuzan said.

Shortly after that Ur came looking for Lyon to help her go after Gray and save him. She was surprised to find him waiting for her at the door along with Kuzan. Lyon had gotten his blue jacket and Kuzan had removed his heavier clothes so that he was now dressed in a dark shirt and pants under the outer part of his jacket. The man himself nudged Lyon's side. "Told you."

"What are you doing?" Ur demanded.

"I can't let a young woman like yourself go off to fight a demon with only two kids as backup, can I?" Kuzan rhetorically asked.

"You're injured. You won't be able to keep up with us and will only end up hurting yourself." Ur argued.

Kuzan rolled his eyes at her concern. It would take more than that to hurt him, even with his current injuries. He was a logia eater. Unless the demon magically knew Haki or had a hidden fire move he would be fine. The only reason he was so weak at the moment was because of the physical damage to his body and that was only his right arm and side. "I'll be fine." He waved off her concerns. "It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I just let my saviors run off to fight without me."

Ur shot a hard look at the man who did nothing in response. She eventually snorted and moved to the front of their group. "Do you think that you can fight Deliora like that?" She asked without turning around.

"Yes."

Ur let out a humph, but didn't continue to insist that he stay which Kuzan took for a good sign. "Fine. Lyon, stay close to me. It will be dangerous." If the idiot was willing to throw his life away in some misguided attempt of repayment then that was out of her hands. She had a student to save.

"Yes, Sensei." The young boy replied. He was nervous watching the two adults argue in their calm voices and was glad that it had been settled.

Ur opened the door and led them out into the storm after Gray.

* * *

 **Several Hours Later, Random Town**

They had tracked Gray through the snow all the way out to the current town that Deliora was rampaging through. The demon had apparently just started as there were still some people fleeing from the place and most of the buildings were still standing. The monster itself was a giant that stood about as tall as Oars Jr had back in Marineford. Its skin was dark blue and had a series of spikes that ran down the front of his body and around his neck. His hands ended in massive claws and his feet resembled those of a giant birds. The most terrifying part of him was his head that was crowned with two large horns attached to a metal plate, hollow holes where his eyes should have been, a mouth that was filled with pointed teeth, and long hair that went down to his neck.

"Arara." Kuzan muttered at the sight of Deliora. His appearance wasn't that surprising to him, but the demon was causing a decent amount of destruction. It would be quite problematic if he continued to rampage.

A flash of blue was seen and a small ice construct attacked Deliora from below. It seemed to have no effect on the demon other than to annoy it. His giant arm came sweeping down at his attacker and destroyed an entire line of houses in order in the process.

"Gray!" Ur shouted out in fear. She had felt his magic being used and there was no doubt on who would be stupid and reckless enough to attack Deliora with suck a weak move. She wanted to run forward and protect him, but there were still so many people that needed to be evacuated. Ur was caught in a dilemma and left unsure of what to do.

Kuzan's hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up at the man. "Don't worry. I'll take care of the civilians. Go save him." He told her. It wasn't a suggestion. There was a look about the normally carefree man that reminded her of the faces she had seen soldiers wearing occasionally. At the moment, Ur's doubts about the man that had been plaguing her since his claims of amnesia left her. She could trust him.

"Lyon, stay with Kuzan. Help him evacuate the town." She ordered. After getting his confirmation, Ur sprinted off to save her other student.

Kuzan and Lyon began to direct people through the streets and searching for injured survivors. Lyon used his _Ice-Make Magic_ to make animals that would help drag people to safety or move debris. Kuzan just used his strength and Haki to locate and save others. While they were doing that he would frequently glance to where Deliora was rampaging. The demon apparently possessed a magical beam that caused giant pillars of flames to appear everywhere it hit, and it was a long beam. It was quite obvious why Deliora was so feared and how he easily destroyed towns in hours. It was quite worrisome to Kuzan. He was made out of ice and couldn't be harmed physically by the beam, but if that thing hit him then the flames would kill him for sure. Giant constructs of ice would frequently appear only to be destroyed quickly after. They seemed to do little damage to the behemoth and from what Kuzan could tell Ur was working more to distract Deliora than actually fight him. He would have to hurry up if he didn't want to let her die.

Finally sensing that all of the living townspeople had left, Kuzan went and found Lyon. The silver haired boy was panting slightly from using so much magic, but was otherwise fine. The pair quickly traveled through the rubble of the town and came across the still fighting Ur. It appeared that she had been distracting Deliora so that he wouldn't finish off the unconscious Gray. Kuzan quickly assessed the situation and began to form a plan. "Lyon, protect Gray. Make sure that Deliora doesn't notice you." Lyon noticed the change in Kuzan and immediately went to follow his orders. Kuzan rushed forward to assist Ur.

Ur panted heavily while down on the remains of her right leg. She had gotten caught up in Deliora's last attack and had lost it along with sustaining a head injury that caused blood to flow into her eye. A quick use of her magic replaced it, but it was still worrisome. She had known that Deliora was strong, but she hadn't thought that he would be this strong. Her attacks hadn't done anything to the demon other than bother it. She watched Deliora begin to charge another attack and put her hands together for her next attack. _"Ice-Make: Rose Garden!"_ A giant forest of roses and thorns erupted across the ground to bind Deliora and force his head upwards so that the beam shot into the air.

Deliora then broke out of the bindings with a roar. Before he could do anything Kuzan made his move. _"Ice Block: Partisan."_ Several spears made of ice appeared around Deliora and attempted to pierce the demon. It had no overall effect like Ur's attacks from before. Kuzan appeared next to Ur in a flash of _Soru_ and let out a sigh. "It seems like he's going to be difficult."

Ur stared at Kuzan in shock. The man had been living in her house for over a month and he hadn't shown a single sign of knowing how to use _Ice Magic_. She had sensed the amount of power that he wielded and it surpassed her, but she had never seen a sign of it. She had felt something whenever she got within a certain distance of her home, but that had been it. She had always assumed he was either too injured to use it, he used a type of _Sensing Magic_ , or that he was a Holder-type mage and had lost the magic item he normally used in his fight. She understood what he had done now. His magic was the same as hers and her student's so anything that he did while she was away would just be contributed to either Gray or Lyon if she found it. She couldn't even be sure that the leg he had been using was the one she made or if he had changed it earlier.

Kuzan noticed Ur's state and spoke up. "The citizens are evacuated and I saw that you were having a hard time so I stepped in." He never took his eyes off of Deliora while remarking about her depleted magic levels and lack of her right leg. It wasn't as bad as his, but a missing leg was a missing leg.

Ur pushed all of her questions and doubts aside. When someone was willing to help you fight a demon that hadn't been taking any damage from your attacks you don't question their motivation. Accusations could be flung around if they made it out alive. "Thanks. But you have a lot of explaining to do after this." She warned him.

Deliora prepared to fire another beam and the pair chose to dodge it instead of deflecting it. "What can you tell me about him?" Kuzan asked. With his lack of knowledge on magic he wasn't willing to take any chances. Haki or no Haki, if he was hit with an attack that he thought wouldn't hurt him, but did, then he'd be in trouble.

"Large, strong, tough, shoots a laser, I'm not sure what you're looking for here." Ur told him.

"Anything else?"

"Do you think it needs more?" Ur sarcastically asked.

Kuzan let out an internal sigh. He understood that people dealt with stress on the battlefield in different ways, but the people that got snappy were the most annoying. "Fine. That's enough anyways. Could you hold him in place?" Kuzan asked before sprinting at Deliora at a normal pace. Ur needed to hold him so that his mouth beam couldn't hit him and he had to give her time to act.

"Enough for what?" Ur asked, but Kuzan was already too far away. She didn't understand what he was doing, but he had a plan, which was more than she could say. Her hands came together as she cast her signature and strongest spell again. _"Ice-Make: Rose Garden!"_

The roses and thorns once again bound Deliora together so that he was facing skywards. Kuzan used that moment to _Soru_ closer, but Ur was running low on magic and her attack wasn't as strong as last time. Kuzan sensed what would happen and shifted to ice right before the demon burst out of his bindings and swiped a hand through the logia-eater.

Ur watched in horror as her ally was seemingly obliterated in front of her along with her ice. That had been their best shot and it was casually destroyed by Deliora. Her best chance now was to find Lyon and Gray and then run. She turned to look for the boys only to find that Lyon was standing behind her while holding Gray. Ur quickly recovered and started to walk towards them. "Lyon, perfect. Give me Gray and make us something to get us out of here. We need to leave while Deliora is distracted."

"What are you talking about, Ur?" Lyon dropped Gray and looked at her with a crazed face. "You're not running away are you?"

Gray woke with a start and a scream. He rapidly glanced around the area and was frightened by the scene of Deliora's rampage and confused by Lyon and Ur's presence. "What's going on? Why are you two here?"

"We came to save you, Gray. Now we need to get away from here." She informed him with a pointed look at Lyon at the end.

The boy didn't get the hint. "You're the strongest, Ur. You can beat Deliora easily."

"There is always someone better." Ur reminded him. "Kuzan was stronger than me and Deliora killed him. We need to go now." The boys stared at her announcement. One in shock the other in disbelief and anger.

"Liar!" Lyon shouted at her. "He was a crippled old man that couldn't move without you." Tears of denial began to form in his eyes. "I became your student because you're supposed to be the strongest. Don't lose to the monster, Ur. Don't betray me."

Ur sadly looked at Lyon. She had merely assumed that his respect and opinion of her was based on her status as his teacher and strength as a mage. In actuality he had hero worship for her and had been convinced that she was the strongest mage in the world. She would have to do something about that after they got away. Apparently he hadn't been listening when she told him about others being stronger than her.

Before she could say anything Lyon jumped in front of her and took a stance that crossed his arms with the right palm down and the left palm up. "If you won't fight him then I will." He declared.

Ur recognized his stance and began to run towards him. "Where did you learn that?"

Lyon kept all his focus on Deliora as his magic power began to build. "You weren't teaching me anything other than your _Molding Magic_ so I learned it from one of your books. To think that you were hiding an _Ice Magic_ as strong as _Iced Shell_." He informed her.

"Lyon, you didn't finish reading, did you?" Ur rhetorically asked. If he was trying to use it then he either had gone crazy or hadn't finished. She was so close. Just a few more inches and she'd reach him.

Ur was too late and Lyon's power surged outwards, knocking her back and attracting Deliora's attention. Gray watched in shock while Lyon's power rose far past anything he had used before. Before Lyon had a chance to finish, Ur froze him in a block of ice.

Gray looked at his teacher in shock. "Ur, what are you doing?!"

" _Iced Shell…_ ruins the user's body…" Ur told Gray between pants. "But it is the only way to defeat Deliora." She admitted. Ur rose to her feet and stood in the path of the approaching demon. "I never expected Lyon to come up with the same plan as me. He truly is my student." She moved forward and assumed the same stance Lyon had. Magic began to build around Ur and the ends of her hair started to turn white. "I won't let you get any closer! This is the end, demon!"

Before Ur could launch her spell the ground around them gained a layer of ice and Deliora was stopped in his tracks. _"Ice Time Capsule."_ Kuzan calmly stated as he walked up from behind Deliora. The demon attempted to break free of the ice only for it to advance further up his legs. Kuzan stretched a hand out and placed it on a part of the leg that wasn't frozen yet. _"Ice Time."_ The rest of the ice quickly worked its way up Deliora who was roaring in rage. He tried to charge another of his magic beams only for his head to freeze before he could release it. Kuzan then casually swept his arm through the frozen demon and destroyed its leg. It fell and crumbled into a multitude of separate chunks, killing the 'Demon of Destruction', Deliora.

While Ur and Gray stared at him in shock Kuzan panted heavily and sweat dripped from his brow. It was as he suspected. Every time he used his ice powers and even his Haki he had felt as if something was being drained from him, but had originally chocked it up to him being weak from his fight. As time went on and nothing had changed he began to fear that the change was permanent. His last use of his powers proved it. In order to turn into ice and reform had taken longer than it should and his energy had been drained in the process. Those last two attacks weren't supposed to take that much effort, but in his weakened state he could barely muster the power needed for them. His vision began to go dark from his efforts and he slowly pitched forward. He knew what had happened to all of his powers now.

Kuzan could use magic.

* * *

 **A/N: So that was a long-ass first chapter. I wanted to cover Deliora and explain what had happened to Kuzan, but damn. I'm not entirely happy with this and it felt like a bit of an exposition dump at some points, but I can't think of a better way to do it. This will probably be the closest to a God-like fic that I will ever get as Kuzan is** _ **way**_ **more powerful than a majority of the Fairy Tail characters. He won't be completely overpowered and I imagine it would be like if we were to follow Gildarts around. This won't be updated as often as my other ones, but I do want to work on it some more so it shouldn't have** _ **that**_ **big of a gap between updates. So until then, later.**


	2. Chapter 2: Flying On

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 2: Flying On**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

 **A/N: New chapter is here! Been a while since I posted this and I had some time to type out a quick chapter. Thanks to Sir Godot who has volunteered to beta for this fic as well.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _'Flashback'_

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Ur's Hut**

Kuzan opened his eyes to find himself staring at a familiar wooden ceiling. He was momentarily confused until his memory came rushing back to him. Gray leaving, him, Ur, and Lyon going after him, Deliora destroying the town, him revealing his powers… shit. Kuzan hadn't wanted to use his powers while he was still with Ur and her disciples. He knew that they wouldn't recognize him as a devil fruit eater or a Marine admiral, but years of training to conceal his powers before he became such a well-known figure couldn't be cast aside so easily. He let out a small groan and brought his hand to his head. This was going to complicate things.

"So you're awake."

Kuzan opened his eyes and found Ur sitting next to his bed. She had a tray with food on it that he could still see steam wafting off of. She set the tray down next to him and gave him a stern look. "You're suffering from magic exhaustion, but I'm sure you're used to that. Gray helped me drag you and Lyon back here after you killed Deliora." Her look turned into a glare and he felt her power spike. Just what he needed, a pissed-off woman. "Would you mind explaining that."

It definitely wasn't a question. Kuzan figured that he wouldn't be able to get out of this with more vague half-truths. Ur wanted the whole truth and wouldn't settle for less. He recognized her look as the same one that Tsuru would level at Garp when the man was trying to dodge her questions. There was no getting out of this, but he couldn't tell Ur the truth. She would think he was crazy. Hell, _he_ thought he was crazy if the evidence wasn't so overwhelming. He needed to come up with a story, and a damn good one at that.

Kuzan let out an exaggerated sigh to play up his reluctance. He needed to be convincing. "Alright, but you can't tell anyone about me." He warned her. After she nodded, he began to spin his tale. "I'm not just a former career soldier, I'm an ex-admiral, the second highest rank in my nation's military. I'm from a large alliance of islands that is collectively run by the monarchs of each island. The Marines were formed to deal with the large piracy problem for obvious reasons." Kuzan paused for a moment and when Ur nodded he continued. "We worked off the policy of "Justice", which in some cases translated to "might makes right". To some marines the idea of justice and protecting the innocent drove them on." He motioned to himself, "While others followed an "Absolute Justice" and would take their orders to the extreme.

Ur noticed Kuzan's angry tone and the way he scowled at the mention of absolute justice. "Did a marine like that give you those burns?" She asked softly.

"Yes."

There was a moment of silence before Kuzan continued. "A few weeks before you found me one of the higher ranked members of a pirate fleet, a man named Ace, had been captured. He was to be publically executed in an attempt to draw out his commander, the strongest man in the world. It worked. He brought his whole fleet and all of his allies to get him back." Kuzan gained a far-off look as he remembered the battle against Whitebeard.

"All of that just for one man?" Ur said in surprise. "I thought pirates were all a bunch of criminals who only cared for themselves."

"Not all of them. The kings' rule is absolute and they don't care for most people. Some people are unable to live like that and take up piracy so that they can live their lives the way they want: freely. Others have done something that upset the kings and thus were forced into the life." The former admiral thought back to Nico Robin and the Strawhat Pirates that she was a part of. People willing to declare war on the world just to save one friend. If only more pirates—no, more people—were like them then his world would have been a better place. Kuzan had always been willing to turn a semi-blind eye at pirates like that. If he came across one by chance he would take them out, they were pirates after all, but he wouldn't actively hunt them down like some marines he could think of. "Whitebeard was special even among pirates. A pirate that didn't want treasure or status from life, but gathered a crew so that he would have a family. And he came storming into Marine Headquarters to save one of his "sons"."

"He sounds nothing like anybody I've ever met, criminal or not." Ur admitted. "But you said "was"?"

Kuzan nodded. "There was a war between Whitebeard's forces and the Marines—more of a large-scale battle, actually. In the end many lives were lost, among them were Whitebeard and Ace. It drastically changed our world. Now there was a power vacuum and not just for the pirates. Our fleet admiral was retiring and one of the admirals was to be promoted as his successor. Sengoku recommended me for the position, but the kings wanted Sakazuki, my fellow admiral and the man that severely wounded Whitebeard during the war. Personally, I didn't want the position, but I wanted to prevent Sakazuki from getting it more."

"Why?" Ur interrupted. "What's so bad about this Sakazuki?"

Kuzan let out a sigh while he thought about the man that had killed him. "Sakazuki was the most fanatic believer of "Absolute Justice". One of the only times that I ever worked with him was when we were sent to eliminate a small island of rebels. Instead of hunting down the rebels, Sakazuki destroyed the entire island on the off chance that we would miss a rebel, or one of the townspeople would hide them, or their ideas had spread to others on the island."

Ur covered her mouth in horror and stared at Kuzan. "And the Marines didn't do anything?"

"They gave him a commendation." Kuzan bitterly told her. "He killed the rebels and sent a message to anyone that would attempt something similar. _That's_ why he was the kings' favorite." He shook his head to rid them of thoughts on Sakazuki. "To determine who was best fit for rule we fought each other on a deserted island. As you can tell," Kuzan motioned to his burns and missing leg. "I lost. Ice doesn't tend to hold up very well against magma." He poorly joked. "So that's why I didn't tell you the truth. I was never dismissed nor did I retire. I must have been transported to these mountains to die and never be found, swept under the rug like so many others. Now I cannot return to my homeland and if I am found by anyone from the alliance or the Marines then I will be hunted down and killed." Kuzan finished. He silently waited for Ur's response.

Ur silently sat next to him for a while. She had no idea what Kuzan had been through and now felt horrible for making him bring up his past that he had a very good reason to hide. To be nearly killed fighting over leadership and now forced to hide from his old allies or else be hunted down and killed. She couldn't fault him for not telling her the truth when he had first awoken. Ur bowed her head to the older man in regret. "I'm sorry for suspecting you and for making you tell me your past like that. You've been nothing but a perfect gentleman and even killed Deliora for us and I've trampled over that kindness."

Kuzan gave her a small smile, apparently his story checked out. "Arara, it's fine." He waved off her apology. "I understand your suspicions. I would have done the same in your position." Actually, he would have just dropped whoever he found off at the nearest hospital and been done with the whole issue, after ensuring that they weren't a wanted criminal first. "I should be thanking you for the care you've given me while I recover." He absently flexed his hand and felt the little power he had remaining. "Although, it looks like I'll have to impose on you for a little longer."

"It will be no bother." Ur said in relief. She hadn't wanted to anger the man after what he had done. If it wasn't for him then she'd have been forced to sacrifice herself to kill Deliora with _Iced Shell._ "My students will be especially happy that you'll be here a little longer." She absently said and then frowned when she thought of one of those students.

This didn't go unnoticed. "Is there something wrong?" Kuzan asked.

Ur let out a tired sigh. "It's Lyon. During the fight against Deliora he wouldn't listen to me when I told him that we had to retreat. When he requested to train under me it was because he knew I was strong, so he wanted to become the strongest. He had the misconception that I was the strongest because of that and when I told them that we were retreating from Deliora he couldn't accept that. He was going to cast _Iced Shell_ himself without knowing the consequences in order to defeat Deliora and I stopped him. When I unfroze him and he learned that Deliora was dead he was ecstatic, until he discovered that it was _you_ that killed him and not me." Ur rubbed her head while she remembered the events that followed. "He hasn't talked to me since and I'm afraid of what he'll do. I was his hero, everything that he wanted to be and I failed him. That's a lot to take in for someone, especially at his age and on top of losing his parents." Ur grit her teeth in frustration. "I just don't know what to do with him!"

Kuzan placed a calming hand onto her shoulder. "It will be okay." He assured her. "Lyon is a bright boy, but too set in his ideals. He's just having trouble accepting how big the world is around him. Give him some time and I'm sure that he'll recover, wiser if not stronger."

"You're sure?" Ur hopefully asked.

"I'm sure. I've seen it happen before." He told her. What he didn't mention was that not everyone bounced back. When faced with a crisis like this it was a make-or-break scenario and most of the time it broke people. Not everyone was capable of accepting what the Marines did in the name of "justice". Burnouts were the best case scenarios, suicides and desertions were more common. The worst was when someone couldn't handle it and rebelled against the Marines for it. The most recent example being the ex-rear admiral that had gone rogue and become one of the 'Worst Generation'. But that wasn't what Ur needed to hear. "And what about Gray?" Kuzan inquired to change the subject.

Ur shot him a grateful look before answering, "Gray is doing much better thanks to you. With Deliora dead he isn't as haunted as before—like a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders. With the knowledge that his parents' killer is dead he can move forward now." She told him with a small smile. Gray's progress was refreshing in the face of her failure with Lyon.

"That's good to hear." Kuzan said before leaning back onto his pillow. He was still tired from unknowingly overusing his magic.

Ur saw this and got to her feet. "I'll let you get some rest." She stopped in the doorway, "Thank you again, for everything."

Her only response was a gentle snoring.

* * *

 **Later that Night**

The door to Kuzan's room was slowly opened and Lyon silently slipped into his room. Ur had mentioned earlier that the man had awoken while they were eating, the only time that he saw her. He was angry at Ur, so angry. She was supposed to be the strongest, yet she wanted to run away from Deliora! Then she had stopped him when he was going to show how strong _he_ was! The worst part was that Deliora had been defeated, but not by him or Ur, not even by Gray, his fellow student under Ur. No, Deliora had been killed by Kuzan. The injured man that hadn't shown any sign of magical prowess the entire time he had been living with them. Even if he was injured that didn't mean that he couldn't do something simple or even tell them that he was a mage. Lyon shook his head. That wasn't why he was here.

Lyon carefully walked around the man's legs so that he was next to his head. He was here to become this man's disciple. Gray may have been satisfied with crawling back to Ur, apologizing for what he had said and begging for her to take him back through his tears, but Lyon wasn't. He had wanted to train under Ur because she was the strongest. That's what all the surrounding townspeople had said when he had asked them in his original search and she had never shown him anything to contradict that until Deliora. Lyon's scowl deepened at the reminder of Ur's failure. When she had told them that there were more mages out there that were stronger than her he had merely thought that she was being modest. Now he knew that she was telling him the truth, yet she had still taken him on! He had told her he wanted to be the strongest and she had trained him as her pupil despite knowing that she wasn't the strongest! She could have just told him where the stronger mages were instead of lying to him!

But now that would change. He would learn as much as he could from Kuzan and become strong enough to surpass him one day. And if it turned out that Kuzan wasn't the strongest then he would leave his tutelage and train under the stronger mage. He would continue to do this until everyone in the world would agree that he was unquestionably the strongest. Then he would never be too weak to do anything again. He would be strong and then all of his problems would be solved and he would never lose again. Not anything nor anybody.

"Are you going to say something or just stand there with that ugly look on your face?" Kuzan's voice snapped Lyon out of his planning and he stared at the older man in shock. Kuzan sat up and scratched the back of his head. "Didn't anyone ever teach you that it was rude to stare at others? And if you keep making that face it'll get stuck like that permanently?" He missed his old sleeping mask, it helped him ignore the people around him and let them know that he wasn't to be disturbed. That was one of the first things he would buy in this world, along with a new bike.

Lyon flinched at the insult and stopped scowling. He had been sure that Kuzan was asleep and that he hadn't made any noise when he snuck in. This just further proved that Kuzan was strong in his mind. "I want you to teach me!" He blurted out a little louder than he wanted. Ur and Gray were still asleep in the other room and he didn't want them to know what he was doing.

"No." Kuzan told him before rolling over and trying to go back to sleep.

Lyon stared at him in shock. He had known that there was a chance that he would be rejected, but not in such a dismissive manner. Kuzan didn't even look him over or consider it before denying him. Lyon's face twisted in anger. "Why not?!" He demanded.

"Several reasons: One, you already have a teacher. Two, I can't teach you anything that she can't. Three, and most importantly, I don't want to teach you." Kuzan listed without even looking at Lyon.

Lyon bristled in indignation. "Ur's not my teacher anymore. She was supposed to be the strongest, but she ran away from Deliora. But you didn't. You fought Deliora and you won."

"That doesn't mean that I'm the strongest, kid." Kuzan told him. He had to nip this hero-worship in the bud before it became a problem. "And that's a poor reason to abandon Ur just because she wanted to keep you and Gray safe." He turned over and leveled a hard look at Lyon. "You're weaker than Gray, and _much_ weaker than Ur. She's strong, stronger than most people you'll meet, and she still lost a leg to Deliora, what do you think you could do. I'll answer that for you: get killed." Lyon flinched again and Kuzan internally smirked. Lyon wasn't too far gone; he could still be taught. "Look at me, why am I in here? Because I fought somebody stronger than me and lost. There will always be somebody stronger than you, faster than you, better than you. What you need to do right now, kid, is learn to accept that and move on. Listen to your teacher, she knows what she is doing. Take your time to live your life and grow stronger naturally. I'm nearly fifty years old and I was never as strong as Ur is at her age. Follow her and you'll eventually get your wish."

Kuzan was lying slightly to the boy. He was much stronger than Ur when he was her age because he had eaten his devil fruit by then. His ice powers never increased from that point, he just got better at using them and handling the power. That was the biggest difference between devil fruit and magic. A devil fruit's power was immense, but never increased. How well it was used and how it was used was left up to the eater. If he had never trained then he'd still have trouble shifting to his ice form and could never use anything other than freezing an entire area solid at random intervals. Magic, on the other hand, worked more like a muscle. The more you used it the stronger you got. Lyon just needed time to become stronger. He also needed to get his head out of his ass and screwed on straight, but Ur could take care of that too.

Lyon stood next to Kuzan quietly while he thought about what the man had said. Kuzan then turned back over and waved him away. "Now it's past your bedtime, kid. Go to sleep and apologize to your teacher in the morning." He flippantly dismissed him.

Lyon numbly followed his advice, but spent the rest of the night tossing and turning while he thought over Kuzan's words.

Kuzan waited until he sensed that Lyon had left before letting out another sigh. He hoped that his words were enough to set the boy on the right track, and to reassure the woman that had been listening outside of the door.

* * *

 **A Few Days Later**

Kuzan relaxed outside while he watched the clouds. The last few days had been nice and peaceful. Lyon had followed his advice and apologized to Ur and after chastising him for the way he acted she had accepted his apology and things were back to normal for the three _Ice Mages_. Things were almost back to normal for Kuzan as well. His magic had apparently returned enough for him to not be bothered by its absence anymore and he was planning to head out soon.

Ur came out of the house and sat down next to Kuzan. Neither said anything for a moment before she spoke, "I'm thinking of moving." Kuzan made no reply, so she continued. "The boys need more training, but they also need to have others to talk with and kids their age to play with. A life of nothing but training with their teacher will leave them socially stunted, no matter how well I teach them. Gray's already picked up a bad habit of randomly stripping." More silence. Kuzan could tell that she needed to get this off of her chest. "There was a man I met a few years ago, shortly after my daughter-" She stopped short for a moment before continuing. "-after she died. He was from a guild out west, never mentioned which one it was, but he was strong—much stronger than me. It might be time to travel west and search for a guild that Gray and Lyon can grow in with others. My dream has always been to raise the new generation out here, but I can't do it all alone, Deliora really drove that point home. I think it's time to let go of the past, so that I can help build the future." She waited for Kuzan to say something, but he remained silent. After a few seconds she spoke up again, "What do you think?"

Kuzan raised an eyebrow at her before speaking. "I think that you've already made your mind up and are just nervous over the decision. You've lived here your whole life and don't want to leave because you feel that it will be a betrayal to your daughter. You just want to hear someone else tell you that it's okay to move on and that Lyon's and Gray's actions have shaken you more than you're willing to admit." She looked up at him in surprise. She never would have expected Kuzan to be that insightful. He smiled down at her. "It's fine and you're right. People can't get hung up on the past if they want to move forward. The world is ever changing and we have to learn to change with it." His thoughts turned to the Marines and the Celestial Dragons. Both of them caught up in the old ways and unwilling to change what they knew was wrong. He himself needed to change as well. Maybe he could use this new world as a chance to view the world in a different perspective, where the people made decisions themselves with their own sense of justice.

"What about you?"

Kuzan turned to Ur in surprise. "Me?"

"Yes. You don't know what it's like in this part of the world, right?" He could concede to that. When she had first mentioned "jewels" he had thought she was referring to gemstones, not paper money. Seeing him nod, Ur continued. "I'd like for you to travel with us and I'll teach you about how things like money and the geography work. As a form of thanks for saving my life and, more importantly, my students lives." She told him.

Kuzan stared at her in surprise. He had honestly never expected to be asked to travel with them. He just assumed that he'd leave after he had fully healed and then head out on his own while learning from trial and error. He had spent most of his time traveling alone since he had been promoted to admiral, anyone else would have been more of a hindrance to him than an asset at that point. It was a nice gesture and he could see that she wanted him to accept. He smiled at her, a real one instead of his usual placating one he showed. "I think that I'd like that."

* * *

The four ice users stood outside of Ur's hut. Their things, mostly clothes, were gathered in packs across their backs and Ur had a chest containing everything else in her hands. She had informed the nearby town that they were leaving and wouldn't be back. They had been given some provisions for their journey, but other than that they didn't say much. It was a small town and Ur and her disciples had never been more than a curiosity that showed up about every two or three weeks.

"This is it, Gray, Lyon. You're training journey starts here." Ur told her students.

"Will we ever come back?" Gray curiously asked.

"Maybe one day, but not anytime soon." She sadly told him. While her students only had memories of their training, Ur had memories of most of her life here. She remembered her family before it had all been destroyed, first from her husband's death and then by her daughter's. But it was time to move on and live in the present away from the past. It would never leave her, but it wouldn't hold her back either. She turned and started to walk away with a sad smile on her face.

Her students followed after her and Kuzan followed after them with a last glance over his shoulder to the simple hut where he had begun to take this new chapter of his life. He turned back to follow Ur and smiled peacefully. 'Perhaps I should be thanking you, Sakazuki. Maybe killing me was the kindest thing you could have done.'

* * *

 **A/N: And they're off. Originally this was going to be a longer chapter, but it just felt right to end it here. Next chapter will start the journey into Ice Trail, a spinoff of Fairy Tail that shows how Gray got to Fairy Tail. That should take about two to three chapters and then I'll start doing some interactions between Kuzan and a younger Fairy Tail cast for a while. Hopefully the chapters shouldn't take as long to update, but I can't promise anything. Later.**


	3. Chapter 3: Daughters

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 3: Daughters**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _'Flashback'_

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Random Town**

Ur led Gray and Lyon into the latest town on their way to the train station. Their journey had led them west across the northern continent and they planned to catch the train at their earliest convenience. Unfortunately, Ur's hut had been located far out of the way of any major or minor train tracks and most methods of travel other than walking were useless in the deep snow. There were still at least three inches of snow covering everything, but it was better than the six-inch minimum they were used to. As the trio made their way through town, Ur noticed an inn on the main road and led her students over to it.

They opened the door and were instantly blasted with a wave of heat that began to melt the snow stuck to their heavy clothes. A cry of "Welcome!" greeted them. A quick look around showed that the inn was apparently a popular gathering place for the town. People were gathered over by the bar and placed by the fire to keep warm. They all glanced up when they had notice people walk in and gave them a once over. Seemingly finding nothing of interest, the patrons turned back to their drinks and groups.

Ur walked over to the woman that had greeted them, a plump and older lady that was behind the bar. She gave her a smile before speaking, "Hello, we're travelers passing through and are looking for a place to stay. Do you have any rooms available?"

The woman nodded and Ur paid her for two rooms. She gave the woman her name and she seemed to perk up. "You wouldn't happen to be Ur Milkovich, would you?"

"Yes," Ur answered. She gestured to Gray and Lyon, "I'm on a trip with my students to see more of the world."

The woman grabbed her hand, "Wait right here," she told her before signaling to one of the servers. After relaying some instructions, the server nodded and left the inn. The woman turned back to Ur, "I'm sorry, but there's a couple that would like to speak to a mage of your reputation about a very important matter. Could you wait for them?"

"Sure," The trio was led over to a relatively private table and given drinks while they waited. Ur sat with her back to the wall and a clear view of the door. It seemed like a quiet town, but she wasn't willing to trust appearances after hearing that someone was looking for her. She turned to Gray, "Go and get Kuzan. Tell him what's going on."

Gray nodded and slipped out of the inn to grab their tall companion. He was waiting on the outskirts of town to avoid drawing attention. His height and scars tended to unnerve people and he had started hanging back until after they had already paid for their rooms after a particularly frightened innkeeper had refused their patronage.

A few minutes later the server came back and led a young couple over to Ur's table. The man had spiky dark hair and equally dark eyes with stubble across his face. The woman had short light brown hair and blue eyes. Both of them looked ragged and had noticeable bags under their eyes. At the sight of Ur their faces brightened and the man leaned across the table to grab her hands, "Please help us find our daughter!" he begged before she had a chance to react.

Ur was startled by his outburst and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. The inn patrons had glanced up from their spots briefly, but then went back to what they were doing with some mumbled words. From what she could tell this wasn't a new development. She reached out and removed his hands from hers, "Calm down. Now tell me what happened to your daughter," she told him calmly. The second she discovered that they needed help to find their daughter she was committed to the job. Memories of Ultear and her overabundant magical power that had led to her death flashed through her mind. She would do whatever was in her power to prevent someone else from going through that pain.

Before the man could speak, the inn doors opened to announce Gray's return with Kuzan. The tall man ducked so that he could fit through the door and gave the room a customary once over. Everything seemed normal. People were gawking, but no one had made any hostile movements or tried to blend into their seats. He quickly located Ur's table and the two people he didn't recognize. Ur gave him a nearly unnoticeable shake of her head and he relaxed slightly. They weren't a threat. It seemed like he hadn't needed to use _Soru_ after all.

Kuzan sat down at Ur's table uncomfortably and she introduced him, "This is Kuzan, my traveling companion. He'll be helping me find your daughter." The couple didn't lose their wary looks, but were now much more open to the man's presence. A quick look from Ur told Kuzan that she would fill him in later before she turned back to the pair, "Now, about your daughter?"

They looked back to her and the man coughed in embarrassment at being caught staring. "Right. My name is Popo Leaf and this is my wife, Nana. Our daughter Nano was kidnapped by the mage guild Chrono Noise several days ago. We tried to go to the authorities, but they threatened to hurt her if we did," Popo's hands clenched until his knuckles went white, "Even if we did, Chrono Noise is a legal guild and it would take days for a representative from the Council to reach here," Nana reached across to grab his hand and he composed himself before continuing, "You're supposed to be a really strong mage, on par with the Ten Wizard Saints, right?" Popo bowed his head, "Please save our daughter. We're begging you."

Ur put her hand on his shoulder and got him to look at her, "Of course we'll save your daughter. Do you have a picture of her?"

Nana nodded and reached into her pocket before bringing out a photo. It showed her and her husband with a young girl that had light brown hair and dark eyes. "This is the most recent picture we have."

The three mages studied the picture while Kuzan asked more questions, "Why would a mage guild kidnap your daughter?" It didn't make much sense to just snatch a random child off the streets unless it was for a ransom. Even then, the pair in front of him didn't look like they were rich and neither of them had said anything about a ransom.

"Nano is a natural magic user. We looked it up and her magic is called _Egg Knock_. It lets her speed up the time inside an egg and we use it to raise some chickens," Nana said, "That's why Chrono Noise took her."

The tall man hummed in thought. They must have found one hell of an egg if they were willing to kidnap a little girl just to hatch it. But it seemed foolish to go as far as kidnapping if one of their members could have just learned the magic themselves. Either they had already known about Nano when they found the egg or it was just easier to hunt down a user of Egg Knock Magic than to find a way to learn how to use it. It didn't sound very useful for combat, which seemed to be what the mage guilds specialized in.

"Do you have any idea where their guild is?" Ur asked after returning the picture.

Popo nodded, "Their guild is set up about a two-day journey into the forest to the east of here. I can point it out on a map," Ur gave him their map and he circled a portion of the forest, "There. That's where they've taken Nano."

Ur rolled up the map, "Okay. It's too late to start out now, but tomorrow morning we'll set out to bring back your daughter," she declared.

Popo and Nana began to tear up as they grabbed Ur's hands again, "We can't thank you enough. If there's anything we can do to repay you, please tell us."

Ur gave them a soft smile, "It's my pleasure to reunite a family. If you want to repay me just give Nano a big hug when you see her." The couple continued to thank Ur and her associates and insisted on paying for their food for the night. Ur eventually relented and they left after dinner.

Later that night, after Gray and Lyon had fallen asleep, Ur knocked on Kuzan's door. He told her to come in and didn't give any sign of surprise that it was her. Ur just chocked it up to the _Sensing Magic_ he had mentioned earlier.

"You're up late," Kuzan remarked.

"There was something that I wanted to talk to you about," she admitted.

"About the job?"

Ur nodded, "I hope I didn't offend you by taking it without asking if you wanted to help."

Kuzan shook his head, "I agree with your decision," his eyes hardened, "For someone to kidnap a child like that is inhuman."

"There's something else. I want you to let me take care of Chrono Noise by myself," Ur requested. Kuzan raised an eyebrow in surprise and she elaborated, "I want to use this chance to prove myself to Lyon again. Show that I'm still strong and get him to stop hounding you about training."

Kuzan hummed in acknowledgement. Even after he had told the kid off, Lyon continued to badger him for training. He wasn't obvious about it, only approaching Kuzan when Ur wasn't around and asking for things like tips on how to make his ice stronger or cast faster. Kuzan had taken to parroting the things he heard Ur tell Lyon and Gray during their regular training or just ignoring the kid, but all it did was make him frustrated. It would be good for him to see his master in action again. From what Ur told him, Deliora was the first major fight that Lyon or Gray had seen Ur in action and it didn't exactly create a glowing review for the _Ice-Make_ master.

"It's also about your daughter, isn't it?" Kuzan softly asked. Ur stiffened and pursed her lips until they looked like a line on her face, but nodded. Kuzan sighed softly, he had suspected as much when he heard about the job. Ur had talked about her daughter, Urtear, exactly once and it had been when he asked about the clothes in the chest she had insisted on bringing along. He had accidently walked in on her holding one of the shirts and she had heard him before he could back out. All she had told him was that she had died young and that she didn't want to talk about it. He had gotten the rest of the details about Urtear's death from Gray.

"I know that it's foolish, but I want to help make up for my mistakes. This time I want to be able to save that little girl from death and those parents from the pain of losing your child," Ur said in a whisper. Her hands were shaking. "At the very least, I want them to have the closure of burying the body."

Kuzan's hand landed on her shoulder, startling her out of the depression she was entering. "I don't think that that's foolish at all. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you deal with those mistakes that's important," he smiled at her, "What happened to Urtear was beyond your control, but I can't think of a better way to make up for it than preventing it from happening to others." Kuzan didn't really know where Ur was coming from. He had never had kids nor an apprentice or student he got close enough to that he had been able to see as a surrogate. But he had known plenty of marines that had and lost their children. It was always hard on them and it had ended up changing more than a few of them radically. Either they left the Marines, or found a way to distract themselves from the pain. There were very few that were ever able to bounce back from it and move on like Ur had. Even Vice-Admiral Garp, one of Kuzan's personal heroes, hadn't taken the death of his adopted grandson, Ace, easily and ended up retiring after his death.

"Thank you, Kuzan," Ur said while giving him a crooked smile. Talking about Urtear was always hard for her and it didn't help that she made it a point to avoid the problem instead of trying to find a better way to deal with it. Gray and Lyon were great kids, but they couldn't fill that hole in her heart. Talking about it with Kuzan had helped a little. She hadn't known him for long, but the older man had a confidence about him that spoke of wisdom and life experience that made her feel more at ease. Ur shook her head slightly, "I'll be going back to my room. Thank you again and I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

"Anytime, Ur. It's the least I can do to repay you for helping me."

"I think that debt has been cleared already," she replied with a tap against her prosthetic leg. "Good night, Kuzan."

"Good night, Ur."

* * *

 **Frozen Forest**

It had taken them two days, but the four ice wielders had managed to find their way to the Chrono Noise Guild thanks to Popo's directions. They were currently scouting out the area to see if there was a way in other than just kicking in the front door. It wouldn't do if Nano was taken hostage or they were surprised and the guild turned out to be filled with a bunch of mages that only used _Fire Magic_.

The guild was made of three different layers and seemed to be armed with cannons on the second layer. They couldn't see any guards by them, but it would be foolish to assume that they were unmanned. Other than that there was only one entrance into the guild that also appeared to be unguarded. Either the master of Chrono Noise was an overconfident idiot or he had some hidden traps around the entrance. Kuzan was going to lean to the latter option.

They ducked back behind the hill they were using for cover and Ur outlined her plan, "Kuzan will freeze the outer cannons and I'll take care of any traps by the entrance. Gray, Lyon, you two are to stay back—no arguing. We aren't sure how strong these guys are and I'm not going to let you two risk your lives until I'm sure that you'll be fine."

The two boys grumbled, but appeared to be listening to their master. Kuzan nodded his acceptance of the plan and disappeared with a burst of _Soru_. He wasn't sure how strong his powers were now that they had been converted to magic, but he was still confident that he could have flash frozen the entire guild at once. However, it was Ur's show and she wanted to impress her wayward student. Also it would be pretty embarrassing to attempt to freeze the guild and find out that he couldn't do it without draining all of his magic.

Ur waited until Kuzan began to freeze the cannons before heading down towards the guild's entrance. She cautiously approached and confirmed that there were no guards on lookout. With a wave of her hands the entrance tunnel was swiftly coated in a layer of ice. Any traps that had been set were now neutralized. Ur gave the signal and Gray and Lyon followed her down. They lined up behind her and the trio entered the guild.

They quickly learned that the guild itself was a maze of hallways that seemed to go on forever. Surprisingly they didn't encounter any guild members while they were wandering. Ur would have preferred them to run into someone by now so they could figure out how to get around this labyrinth they called a guild. Eventually they made their way to a large center chamber that had a giant black sphere in the middle of it. "Holy shit," Gray swore in awe. Ur absently smacked his head for his language even though she agreed with him. That thing was enormous.

Suddenly the sphere began to bulge and the three mages dropped into ready stances. Nothing happened and they slowly inched around the sphere to see a large group of men standing on the other side and Nano kneeling in front of the sphere with a beam of white magic shooting out of her hands. Ur quickly made the connection between Nano's magic and the large black egg and prepped her magic. "Gray, Lyon, get Nano out of here!" she ordered before sending out a wave of ice that froze the Chrono Noise members to the floor and covered them up to their necks.

One mage managed to avoid Ur's attack. He jumped out of the way and landed outside of her attack's range. He was an extremely short man who was balanced on top of two stilts and dressed in a strange jumpsuit that had a target in the middle of it, a large disc around his neck, and a tall hat that covered his entire head. The man seemed to be divided down the middle with black hair and a black eye on the right side and white hair and a light blue eye on the left side.

"You bitch! Do you have any idea who you're challenging?!" the short man yelled, "I am the master of this guild, Nez Booms. We've spent so much time hatching this devil's egg and you're wasting more of it!" He punctuated his words by a barrage of orbs that surrounded Ur, _"Full Panorama Bombs!"_

The orbs exploded simultaneously and engulfed Ur in a cloud of smoke and flames. Nez smirked at the sight, but the smile was wiped from his face when the smoke cleared and revealed Ur standing unharmed behind her flower-shaped shield. His eyes narrowed in anger and he sent forth another wave of bombs that Ur jumped over this time. Nez took the chance to launch himself at Ur stilt-ends first.

Ur caught the end of the stilt with a raised brow and then froze the stilts. Nez jumped off the stilts before he froze as well and smiled at Ur, _"Bomb Stamp."_

A mark on Ur's hand went "tick, tock" before exploding. Nez's smile was once again premature as the smoke cleared again and he saw Ur shaking her hand in irritation. "Damn, that stings," Ur cursed. Little bastard had a mean magic. Actually, now that she saw him without the stilts she sniggered at him, "I think you're shorter than my youngest student," she told him.

Her words had the desired effect. Nez began to scream and curse at her and gathered up his magic to unleash another wave of bombs. Before he got the chance, Ur grabbed him by the head and froze him solid. All of the mages stared at her in shock. Their master had just been taken down as if he was a child by this random woman that had just waltzed in like she owned the place. Ur looked down at Nez in confusion and disappointment, "Is that really it? Aren't you supposed to be a guild master?" She knew that she was stronger than the average mage, but damn that was just pathetic. She'd be willing to bet that Gray or Lyon could have handled him single handily.

With a shrug of her shoulders she dropped the frozen mage and called out to her students, "Lyon, Gray, never mind. I took care of them all,"

The students and child they were supposed to rescue stuck their heads out from behind the egg. They hadn't actually managed to get to one of the doorways yet, Ur had taken Nez and his guild members down too quickly. Gray and Nano were looking at Ur with stars in their eyes, "Wow, you're so strong and cool, Mage-sama," Nano gushed at Ur.

"That was amazing, Sensei!" Gray agreed.

Ur smiled at both of them and looked over at Lyon. The boy squirmed under her gaze, "I guess that was pretty great," he eventually mumbled.

Ur smiled at him as well. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. Lyon was still going to be a work in progress it seemed.

"So what are we going to do about this?" Kuzan's voice called out. They looked over and found him standing in front of the egg. "What could even lay an egg this big?"

"Um, Nez called it a devil's egg," Nano hesitantly offered. The new guy was huge and slightly scary, but her saviors seemed to know and trust him.

"Arara, is that so?" he muttered before stretching his hand out to touch the egg, "We can't have it hatching then, can we?" Ice quickly spread out from Kuzan's hand and covered the entire egg. With his other hand he punched the egg and shattered it into a jumbled bunch of ice shards.

"Well that's one way to do it," Ur muttered to herself before going over to Nano and crouching down, "Hello, Nano-chan. My name's Ur. Are you hurt?"

"No. How do you know my name?" she suspiciously asked. They might have saved her, but that didn't mean that they were there to rescue her. The last week as a prisoner hadn't exactly inclined her to believe the best in random strangers.

"Your mom and dad sent us to save you. Nana and Popo from the nearby Cyclamen Town," Ur told her.

A smile broke across Nano's face and she gave Ur a big hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," the little girl sobbed into Ur's shirt.

The ice mage was shocked at first, then relaxed and returned her hug, "It's okay now. You're going back home."

Around her, the three males shuffled awkwardly. Kuzan grabbed Lyon and Gray and they went around to free the mages from the ground so they could take them back into town. Gray made a large prison cart out of ice and they threw all the mages into it. Lyon made a pair of horses and the ice users began the trek back into town.

* * *

 **Cyclamen Town**

They made quite the sight walking back into town. Four strangers that had been in the town for less than a day bringing in the local guild in a horse drawn prison cart that was an ice sculpture brought to life. At the front of their group was Nano riding on one of the horses. As soon as they reached the town she scrambled down and ran into town and made her way to her house. Ur followed her while the others went to inquire where to put the defeated Chrono Noise.

In her rush to get to her house, Nano tripped over something hidden under the snow and face planted into the ground. Before Ur could help her up, the little girl jumped to her feet and continued running. She reached her front door and started pounding on it while calling for her parents. The door was quickly opened and Nana and Popo gasped at the sight of their little girl. Strong arms enveloped Nano and she was pulled into the familiar and comforting warmth of her parents' embrace. The reunited family cried in happiness while Ur watched, unwilling to interrupt their moment. When they had finally calmed down some, Popo turned to Ur, "Thank you. Thank you so much. You brought back our little girl," he told her with tears in his eyes, which was soon echoed by his wife and daughter.

Ur just smiled, "It was a pleasure," she replied. She knelt down before Nano, "Now, be a good girl for mommy and daddy, okay? Don't let any more bad men take you away or I'll have to come back and beat them up again."

Nano nodded vigorously, "Yeah. Thanks again, Ur-san."

Ur smiled at the little girl and walked away with a wave over her shoulder. Once they were out of sight she found a bench to sit down on. The tears she had held back throughout the reunion began to trickle out. Images of a little girl with dark purple hair the same shade of her own that looked so much like her. That little girl catching a fever that doctors couldn't cure. The people that told her that they could save her daughter now telling her that they failed and the body was too horrible to look at, no matter how much she pleaded or threatened them. The tears began to flow faster and her back heaved with silent sobs. The world wasn't a fair place, yet she couldn't help but to hate that it wasn't and wish that fate or luck or whatever the hell was in charge of the world would have made it so a stranger with just what she needed to save her daughter had appeared like she had for the Leaf family.

That was how Kuzan found her an hour later. Tear-stained and red-eyed on a bench in the middle of the snow-filled town. "Ur," She didn't respond. "Ur, we've been looking for you," Still nothing. Kuzan sighed and reached a hand down to her, "Come on, Ur. Your kids are starting to worry about where you went."

They weren't her kids, not really. For all that she would say to anyone that said otherwise, inside she knew that they were a poor replacement for Urtear. But at the same time they were all she had and she was all they had, brought together by tragedy and loss. No one had appeared to save her, but maybe that was so she could appear to save others. Ur wiped the back of her hand over her face to rid herself of any remaining tears and grabbed Kuzan's hand. The large man hauled her to her feet with an easy motion and she straightened her back. She motioned to Kuzan, "Lead the way."

The older man rolled his eyes at her before he began walking. While following him, she looked down at his legs and watched the footprints he left. The ones left by his left foot being different from his right. Ur then compared it to her own footprints, with the ones left by her right foot matching the ones left by his left. If she timed her steps right and walked between his tracks, then the two different set of footprints lined up to match each other. One set of normal prints and one set of stiff prints. She remembered how she got that fake leg and gave a small smile.

Maybe the world had sent her a stranger with just what she needed after all.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, I updated this story again and it only took five months! Jesus, I'm bad at that. So we're moving on through with Ice Trail. It'll be shorter than the actual manga since some things can be skipped due to traveling with powerful mages like Ur and Kuzan. I'm thinking that it would only be two more chapters at the most until we reach Fairy Tail and get into their stuff. Then I'll be able to focus more on Kuzan. Surprisingly, this chapter spent a lot of time on Ur instead of him. Also, before I get a bunch of pms and reviews about how I misspelled Ultear's name, Ultear's name was originally Urtear, but she changed it after thinking Ur abandoned her. Well until next time (hopefully next month at the latest) later.**


	4. Chapter 4: Prison

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 4: Prison**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _'Flashback'_

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Train Car**

Gray and Lyon sat on one side of the train's benches with Ur sitting opposite of them. Behind her, Kuzan was taking up an entire section for himself due to his height. The tall man managed to sit with his legs bent at an angle and still talk to the others by leaning his head back over the seat. "So where is this Black Vox prison at?" Kuzan asked. After they rescued Nano and returned her to her parents they had been asked to transport the members of Chrono Noise to the magical prison called Black Vox. Seeing that they had no set travel route and that they'd have to take the train anyways, the four had agreed to the request. They had met up with the head jailer of Black Vox and handed over the Chrono Noise members already. It was nice to get them out of their hair and put some magic cancelling handcuffs on them. Prolonged freezing wasn't beneficial to their health and it was annoying to have to keep freezing the prisoners so that they wouldn't have a chance to escape.

"It's still a ways away to the south. Black Vox is located far away from civilization in a rocky desert. The jailers will take the prisoners away in some magic four-wheelers and then we'll never have to see them again," Ur answered.

Kuzan hummed in response before asking his next question, "What kind of prison is Black Vox—besides magical?"

"Black Vox is the most secure prison on Earth Land. It's a massive prison that floats above the ground and is staffed by the jailers, who act as their military force. Black Vox can only be opened from the inside and the cells themselves are smaller versions of the prison that can only be opened from the outside. It is home to only the most dangerous of prisoners and is equipped with anti-magic technology so that it can even hold mages. It's said to be virtually impenetrable," Ur explained.

Kuzan snorted in disbelief, "I've heard that before."

"Oh, really?" Ur asked with a raised eyebrow, hoping that Kuzan would spill a little more about his past.

He obliged, "We have a similar prison called Impel Down. A giant prison that holds the worst of the worst, with six levels built underneath the prison that is located in monster-infested waters. Each level is better secured than the last and Impel Down was supposed to be impenetrable."

"What happened?" Gray asked. Kuzan looked at him and Lyon and saw that they were enraptured with his story. It made sense, Impel Down was only scary to those that understood the horrors of the six levels. To everyone else it was just a really good prison.

"There were two breakouts from Impel Down," Kuzan began, "One was Shiki the Golden Lion, one of the strongest criminals to ever exist. He cut off his feet to escape and made it through all six levels single-handedly. It was regarded as a mistake and after that all prisoners were shackled on both their hands and feet with magic cancelling handcuffs." Kuzan made sure to avoid mentioning the Marines and to switch Seastone to magic cancelling. "The last and greatest escape was done by an upcoming criminal who not only snuck _in_ to Impel Down, but also managed to start a mass riot and break out with over two hundred and forty prisoners." He leaned back even farther to look them in the eyes, albeit upside-down, "So I'm a little skeptical when people mention impenetrable prisons these days."

Gray and Lyon began to excitedly discuss Impel Down and Black Vox among themselves. Trying to decide which prison was better and how strong the prisoners that broke out had to have been. Ur just rolled her eyes at their antics and turned to Kuzan when he tapped her shoulder. "How do you know so much about Black Vox? That was more in-depth than the average person should know."

"Black Vox is the only prison around her for miles. Back when I was in a guild we'd sometimes have to drop criminals off there depending on how strong they were. Most jails can't hold the stronger dark mages, so they get sent here."

Kuzan raised a brow, "Then why are we bringing Chrono Noise there. They can't be strong enough to warrant taking up space in Black Vox."

Ur waved off his concerns, "It's probably temporary. They'll get transferred to a different prison later. Only the guild master has a chance to be put in Black Vox and that'll depend on how much room they have."

Kuzan nodded. That made more sense. He checked the time and began to stretch out. "I'm going to stretch my legs for a bit." Ur waved a hand to show that she heard him and Kuzan began to make his way through the train cars. He spent some time stretching in the space between the cars and then made his way to the prisoner car. It wasn't that he didn't trust the head jailer, but Kuzan had always been a believer in making sure that a job was done right the first time so you wouldn't have to waste time doing it over. A quick check showed that the dark mages were all chained up and their magic suppressed. The head jailer had agreed to let them leave the ice covering their mouths after he heard how much shouting Nez would be doing. He casually waved a hand and made sure that the ice wouldn't melt before turning to go back to his car.

Suddenly, danger flashed across Kuzan's Haki and he barely had time to turn his body to ice before the car he was on was crushed.

* * *

 **Train Car**

The three ice mages were violently thrown from their seats when the train came to a sudden stop. Ur was fast enough to protect them with a one-handed shield. It wasn't her preferred method of casting but it was faster than two-handed casting and it was enough to protect them from the crash. Ur dropped her shield and looked over Gray and Lyon, "Are you two okay? Did you hit anything in the crash?"

"I'm fine," Gray muttered while rubbing his head.

"The shield's what hurt us," Lyon grumbled while shaking his arm. "What was that?"

"I don't know, but it can't be good." Ur surveyed the damage. Their car was lying at a slight angle and the windows were broken, but that was about it for damage. She headed towards the door, "Come on, boys. Let's go see what happened."

The trio left their car and went outside to view the damage. What they saw was pretty bad. Someone had apparently dropped part of the hillside with a tree onto one of the cars. It was completely crushed and had caused the entire train to be derailed. The rails underneath the car were also crushed and warped, so even if they managed to get the train back on the rails they'd have to do something about the tracks as well.

"Whoa," Gray whispered in surprise at the damage.

Ur focused on the location of the attack, "That's the prisoner car," she gasped. Kuzan had went to check on the prisoners. He might have been in the car when it had been hit. Ur rushed over to the wreckage while calling for her students to join her.

The wreck was worse up close. There was blood leaking out from the twisted metal and it didn't take a genius to guess what happened to the Chrono Noise guild members. Ur just hoped that Kuzan's blood wasn't mixed in with theirs. She examined the projectile and cursed. The tree's roots had held the earth together when it impacted and it was still a mostly intact chunk of a hill that was nearly as big as the train car. It wouldn't be easy to lift. "Gray. Lyon. Help me lift this off of the car." Ur didn't wait to see if the boys were going to listen and instead made a giant set of hands that grew out of the ground and began to lift the earth. A second pair of smaller hands joined her closely followed by third. Together, the ice mages lifted the chuck off the train car and set it to the side.

"Kuzan, are you alive?" Ur yelled at the wreckage. She didn't wait for a response and began to fill the car with ice to push the metal back into place.

"Could he have even survived that?" Gray hesitantly asked.

"Of course. He's able to become an elemental, remember," Ur wasn't sure if she was reassuring Gray or reminding herself. Kuzan would have pulled himself from the rubble by now if he could. But it couldn't be possible that someone as strong as he was would die from something as simple as a falling tree.

"Ara, ara," a familiar voice drawled out. "The downside of being a solid elemental is that you can't just move around things." Ice began to come together from across the wreckage of the car and formed into the tall man. Kuzan cracked his neck, "I hate being stuck in chunks like that. Always leaves me feeling stiff when I finish pulling myself together."

Ur let out a sigh of relief, "Thank God." He'd had her worried there for a minute.

The boys were more obvious about their relief, but Kuzan just brushed them off. It wasn't the first time he'd been stuck between a rock and a hard place and it probably wouldn't be the last. There were more important things to focus on. "What happened?"

"I don't know. We were shaken around when the train was attacked and then came out here to find you and the prisoner car crushed," Ur explained.

"Let's check the other side," Kuzan suggested.

They climbed over the train car just in time to watch a group of men drag the head jailer into a strange looking vehicle. Before the four mages could act, the vehicle lifted off into the air and began to fly away.

"They must be taking Torch to Black Vox," Ur guessed. Torch's position as a member of the Magic Council was only a formality. His position as Head Jailer of Black Vox got him the title, but he wasn't involved in Council business unless someone was being sent to Black Vox. There was no other reason to kidnap him.

Kuzan judged the distance between them and the vehicle and grabbed the three mages at his side. "Brace yourselves," he warned before taking off after the vehicle. Using _Kamisori,_ a combination of the _Soru_ and _Geppo_ techniques _,_ Kuzan was able to keep the vehicle in sight, but it was too fast for him to keep up with without putting Gray and Lyon in danger. His false leg wasn't helping any either.

Eventually, the landscape shifted to an arid wasteland and the large floating prison of Black Vox came into view. The vehicle stopped in midair and Kuzan saw his chance. He picked up the pace slightly and made it to the vehicle as it flew into Black Vox. Kuzan set the others down and then sat down to catch his breath. Using Kamisori was normally a strenuous technique, and taking how long he had been using it into account it was impressive that he had managed to keep up. Kuzan wiped the sweat off his brow and waved off Ur's concern. "I'm fine. Just need to catch my breath," he told her before she could say anything. He wouldn't be much of an admiral if he was out of commission because of a little running on air.

Ur couldn't help rolling her eyes at Kuzan. That little trick had obviously tired him out. Judging by how he had started to break his prosthetic towards the end and had to keep recreating a new one for each jump. He hadn't been using magic to propel them all through the air, that was pure physical strength. She hadn't seen anyone that strong since that one guy she had met before Deliora had started to rampage. She didn't know what he was kicking off of, but that couldn't have been easy, especially based on how heavily he was breathing and sweating. He was trying to play it off, but she wasn't having any of it. "Stay here. We'll take care of these guys," she told him. Ur stood up and motioned to her students, "Let's go, boys."

Lyon and Gray fell into line on either side of Ur and they walked around to the front of the vehicle. There they found two groups of people wearing uniforms. One was the group from the train that were dressed identically in dark clothes, blindfolds, and with long ponytails. Their leader was holding Torch aloft without touching him and Ur noted him as the biggest threat. _Telekinetic Magic_ was dangerous on its own, but especially when handled by a dark mage.

The other group were dressed in the white uniforms and square cloth masks of the Black Vox staff. Their leader was a man with poofy spiked hair and was holding a strange staff. He appeared to be trying to negotiate with the dark mage.

"When I give the signal, freeze as many of them as you can," Ur ordered. She didn't take her eyes off of the hostage situation before her, but she felt Gray and Lyon nod next to her. Good. They needed to focus. Ur waited until she saw the Black Vox leader nod to one of his underlings and he began to type into a computer. "Now," Ur said and covered the platform they were standing on in ice.

Everyone was caught off guard when their feet were frozen to the floor by Ur's sudden attack. They were easy pickings for Gray and Lyon as they ran through the ranks and froze everything they touched. Legs, arms, and torsos were engulfed in ice and threw off the dark mages' balance. Some tried to remove the ice with their magic only to be attacked by birds and bullets made of ice. Gray grinned while shooting the mages and freezing even more of their bodies on contact while Lyon sported a smirk as he sent his flock of eagles crashing into their heads.

Meanwhile, Ur bypassed all the grunts to focus on the leader and Torch. The leader couldn't turn around while frozen up past his ankles, so he tossed Torch aside to free up his magic and make short work of his restraints. He turned around to face Ur only to find her right on top of him. She slammed her fist down on her palm, _"Ice-Make: Hammer!"_ A large mallet made of ice appeared over the leader's head and dropped on him like a judge's gavel. He wasn't going anywhere.

Ur looked back to see that her boys had taken care of all the dark mages easily. They hadn't managed to do much thanks to the element of surprise, but Ur would put money on her either Gray or Lyon taking them in a straight fight. She had taught them after all.

Hearing a groan, Ur turned back to see that the Black Vox staff had converged on Torch to see if he was okay. He was insisting that he was fine and getting up on his own when she walked over to him. "Fancy meeting you here, Torch-san," Ur said with a smile.

"Heh. You're the one that seems out of place, Ur-san," Torch responded while rolling his shoulders and head. Being held hostage was rough on a man of his age. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you and your students. Without you they would've released Drum from his cell."

"It's no problem at all," Ur assured him. "We couldn't just sit by and let them get away with kidnapping you. Right, boys?" She asked Gray and Lyon as they arrived. They had finished up freezing the dark mages and naturally wandered over to where Ur was standing in time to hear her ask them something.

"Right," Gray parroted. He didn't know what the question was, but he figured that that was the right answer.

Lyon was more flippant with his answer, "Yeah, whatever."

"You all have my thanks," Torch told her with a bow. "But what about that other man with you, the tall one?"

"Kuzan? He's resting over there," Ur pointed at the vehicle. "He pushed himself too hard trying to keep up with your captors."

Before Torch could comment on that, a loud cracking noise was heard as one of the prison boxes was broken. The prisoner dropped down to land in front of everyone while rolling his shoulder. "Damn. You guys already beat them. There goes that job," the prisoner muttered in disappointment. He was a tall man with slicked back orange hair and stubble. He was wearing dark pants, white boots, and a black cloak that left his muscular chest, and more importantly, a black guild mark in the middle of said chest exposed.

All of the mages tensed at the prisoner's escape except for one. "Gildarts?!" Ur exclaimed in surprise. What the hell was he doing in a prison?

Gildarts studied Ur for a minute before his face relaxed in recognition, "Ur—!" His surprised call turned into a grunt in exertion when he spun around and blocked the ice saber that had attempted to cut him down from behind. He noticed the frost trying to creep its way down his arm and destroyed it with his magic along with the saber. "Nice try," Gildarts told Kuzan with a smile. He had been couped up in that box for too long. It would be good to let off some steam.

Kuzan's eyes widened in shock. Shanks?! Here?! How? He jumped back from his opponent and took a better look. No. It was just a man that looked like Shanks. This man's hair was orange not red, he had stubble, no scars over his eye, and the biggest giveaway was the fact that he had both his arms. Kuzan flexed his fingers as they reformed. The man may have looked like Shanks, but he had a power similar to Whitebeard's. And wasn't that an unholy combination if he had ever heard one. Kuzan had felt his hands shatter when the man used whatever magic he had to break his blade. He was going to have to be careful.

The two men squared off and began to feel each other out. The temperature began to drop and ice spread out from Kuzan's feet while his breath left a cloud in the air. Gildarts smiled with his teeth and wisps of white magic began to appear around him as the platform cracked under him in an expanding circle.

Most of the watchers were sent to their knees and had their teeth start chattering at the display of power. Except for Ur. She calmly formed two hands out of ice behind the two men and slapped them upside the head with them. Instantly the oppressive power vanished and the two men rubbed the bumps forming on the back of their skulls. "What do you two idiots think you're doing?!" she demanded.

* * *

Once Ur had gotten the two men to calm down and explain that no one was attacking the prison anymore the situation was diffused. The dark mages were rounded up and put into temporary holding cells until they could be transferred to a different prison and Gildarts began to explain why he was pretending to be a prisoner.

"So that's how I managed to get in here," he finished with a smug grin. "Rather ingenious if I do say so myself."

Ur rolled her eyes again. "Yes, congratulations. But that doesn't explain why you're in here and how you got out."

"That last one is rather important," Torch pointed out. He was standing next to the poofy-haired guy from before who was apparently named Grog. "Black Vox has never had an escape before and we need to know how you got out so that we can prevent it from happening again."

"Ah, that's simple. See, you guys have those boxes of yours that are supposed to prevent anyone from escaping from them so you don't bother to block any magic other than the kinds that deal with space-time, right? So, I just smashed my way out when I heard that you had beaten the Five Bridge Familia," Gildarts casually said. "As for why I'm here," a dopey grin grew across Gildarts's face and he laughed a little. "Someone asked me to return a favor."

"That's not an answer," Ur deadpanned at Gildarts in annoyance.

The Black Vox staff were a little more concerned with Gildarts's explanation of his escape. "T-that shouldn't be possible. All the prisons are a copy of Black Vox itself. They can't be broken. The prisons constantly rotate the areas facing the inside and repairs itself with magic stolen from its prisoner. The material that makes up the entire prison is the hardest and sturdiest in existence. After its treated there isn't any way to break it. What you're describing is impossible," Torch explained in a kind of detached awe. His mind was stuck trying to process what had happened with what he knew to be fact. It was impossible to break out of a Black Vox prison with nothing but power, yet he was talking to man that claimed to have done that. It just didn't make sense.

Gildarts laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Oops? Sorry? I'll give you the address to where you can bill the damages," he offered.

Torch numbly accepted and left with Grog to check to see if there was anything wrong with the prison and maybe sit down and have a drink for a bit. Ease some of that stress away.

Gildarts turned to the traveling ice mages after Torch left. "So what are you up to, Ur? I can see that you got around to raising the newest generation," he said with a lecherous grin and waggling eyebrows. "But you told me you wanted to raise them up north. Something happen?"

Ur noticed Gildarts's eyes dart down to her leg with that last question. She subtly moved it behind her while introducing her students with emphasis, "Gildarts, these are my _students,_ Gray and Lyon." The two said their hellos. "And this is Kuzan. He helped us with a problem up north and is travelling west with us for now."

Gildarts ran an appraising eye over the three and was satisfied with what he saw. The kids were pretty strong for their age and the Kuzan guy had felt pretty powerful when they had briefly clashed. Ur was also implying that he had taken care of whatever had cost Ur her leg. It was a solid traveling group, but she was avoiding his question. Gildarts thought it over and decided that it wasn't any of his business. "Well nice to meet you guys. Anything that a Westerner like me can do to help you out?"

Ur paused for a moment and gained a thoughtful look. She pointed at Gildarts's chest, more specifically, at the symbol on his chest and asked a question that raised four pairs of eyebrows, "Can you tell me more about your guild?"

* * *

 **A/N: I'm tired. Happy Halloween. Later.**


	5. Chapter 5: Past and Future

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 5: Past and the Future**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _'Flashback'_

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Mone**

Ur and Kuzan were sitting in a local bar while waiting for Gildarts to come back from his meeting. The Fairy Tail mage had a stack of jobs that he was going through and one of them was to kill the monster that was preventing anyone from crossing the Kaysh River. They needed to cross the river in order to reach their now named destination, Fairy Tail. Gildarts was the man Ur had mentioned when she had talked about leaving with Kuzan and after hearing some of the man's stories, Kuzan could admit to being curious as well.

Gildarts was at his meeting with the town's mayor and Ur had told Gray and Lyon to go off and explore the city. It was much bigger than the small towns they had visited back home and she knew that they'd be raring to explore. They were spending their time relaxing and enjoying a coffee. Gildarts was going to go kill the beast and come back to get paid before picking them up and giving them directions to Fairy Tail from the other side. After that he was heading up north to finish some of his other jobs.

"Have you ever been in a guild before?" Kuzan suddenly asked. He didn't know much about Ur's past beyond her daughter's death, but she seemed almost eager to join Fairy Tail. With her strength she must have either been in a guild or working for the Magic Council. There was always the chance of an apprenticeship, but she knew too much about the guild system to make that a plausible option.

Ur was silent for a moment before she put her coffee down. "I was, once." She didn't say anything more and Kuzan was content to just wait. He had noticed that if Ur wanted to say something she would and if she didn't she wouldn't. Trying to lead her wouldn't get him anywhere. All he could do was wait. Either she'd talk about her past or she wouldn't and that'd be that.

"My dad was a mage and my mom owned a flower shop in the town his guild was in. When I was little I'd split my time between helping my mom in the greenhouse and listening to my dad and his friends talking about the jobs they went on. I loved their stories, even though I knew that they were embellishing them for me it didn't matter. When I was eight my magic manifested itself in the nursery and I accidentally froze my mom's rose garden," Ur gave a little chuckle at the memory of her mom's horrified face when she showed her the frozen flowers. "She kind of strong-armed my dad into teaching me magic after that. It was the best. They pulled me out of school after that and Dad would teach me how to fight while Mom taught me everything else that I'd need. I spent my days molding ice or taking care of flowers and my nights reading books."

Ur finished off her coffee and let herself get swept up in the nostalgia of simpler times. She then ordered a couple of shots of the strongest stuff the bar had before continuing. "I was a prodigy. I rose through the guild ranks and soon became not only an S-class wizard with a fancy moniker, but the guild's ace. 'Ice Rose' Ur Milkovich, the ace of Snow Angel and most likely candidate for the position of Wizard Saint."

Kuzan could tell by the mocking tone and subsequent shot following that statement that this story didn't get better.

"I fell in love with a guy named Shirato when I was in my twenties. Nice, sensitive, good-looking, everything that a girl could want in a man. We had fun, a lot more than we should have at times, and I wound up pregnant. I wasn't sure at first, so I took a solo job that require me to be gone for about a week. I finished it and stopped at a hospital on the way back to confirm. That's when I learned about Urtear."

There went another shot.

"I was a regular mess after that. I hadn't given any thought to having kids, that was something old people do. But there I was, unmarried, at the peak of my career, and Shirato and I had never discussed if we wanted to have kids or not. I spent the whole ride back worrying over what I was going to tell him, or even worse, what I was going to tell my parents. Turns out, I shouldn't have worried."

Two more.

"The town was gone, buried under a massive avalanche. A couple of local dark guilds had heard that I was going to be gone for a week and had banded together to attack Snow Angel. Someone's spell had gone wide and they hit the mountain. The whole place was destroyed in minutes. There wasn't anyone left with enough magic to take care of the snow and they all died. That had happened six days before I got back. They were still digging out the bodies when I got there. My parents, my guild, my friends, Shirato, all gone. They were dead and I hadn't even known." Ur took a shaky breath and Kuzan could see that her knuckles had gone white. After she had taken a moment to compose herself she continued, "I recovered as much of my things as I could and the guild's money—I was its new owner by default. The guild master of none. I paid for the funerals, contacted the Magic Council to let them know that Snow Angel had been destroyed and that I was retiring. I moved far enough away that no one would have heard about Snow Angel or 'Ice Rose' Ur. I had Urtear and planned to raise her there and hope that she wasn't a natural magic user." Ur picked up the last shot glass and swirled it around a bit, "But things just didn't pan out that way."

Down it went.

Ur paused and stared at the glass in her hand for a second. "I probably shouldn't have done that so fast," she absently noticed before passing out on the table.

Kuzan leaned back in his chair after Ur was done. That was a lot more than he bargained for. He had asked if she had been in a guild and received her life's story in response. He didn't really care about her past, he just wanted to know what to expect with a guild.

He stood up and went over to pick Ur up. He pulled some bills out of her wallet and set them on the table before carrying her back to the hotel. It wasn't like he had any money to pay for those drinks. He dropped Ur off in her room and paused a moment to look at her. Now that she was asleep he noticed the lack of several worry lines that she normally had. With a backstory like that it wasn't surprising to learn that she was constantly stressed. She probably hadn't told anyone that since it happened and that had to have been over ten years ago. He didn't know what it would be like to lose that many people at once, but he still felt bad for the woman.

Kuzan went over to his room and sat down on one of the two beds he had pushed together. Great, now he was starting to think about all the people he had been friends with over the years that had been killed. Daniels, Captain Kurt, Commodore Shepard, John…

Saul.

It was a depressingly long list now that he stopped to look at it. It was expected when you had served in the marines for as long as he had. Especially since he had lived through the rise of men that were now legends. It made him wonder how he managed to grow as old as he had, even with a logia Devil Fruit.

Great, now he was depressed. Fortunately, he had learned how to fix that a while ago. The tall man leaned back on the beds and shut his eyes. He idly noted that he still needed to buy a sleeping mask before he nodded off.

* * *

Kuzan woke from his nap to the sound of someone pounding on his door. He got up and let out a jaw-cracking yawn before answering. Outside of the door was Gray, Lyon, Gildarts, a young scruffy looking girl with short brown hair, and a cleaner and prettier older girl with long brown hair. Kuzan gave them all a flat stare. "I was asleep for," he checked the clock, "an hour. What could you three have possibly gotten into in that time that ends up with two more tagalongs?" Seriously, they might as well buy a wagon at this point.

Gildarts scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "That's a funny story." He then went on to explain that Cappuccino, the local feudal lord, was an ass who had purchased the two sisters to work for his bar. Amelie, the older sister, had asked Gildarts to free her sister and take her away with him after he finished his job. Gildarts decided to take things a step further and he grabbed Amelie, punched a guy through a window, and escaped to find her sister, Mary. Gray and Lyon had already found Mary and were helping her carry things to the bar Gildarts had just exited. He grabbed everyone and threw them over his shoulders. He then fled to the dock and had them take off so that he could finish the job and escape Cappuccino. They were attacked by the Unicol and Cappuccino, who was still pursuing them with the help of one of his henchmen. Gray and Lyon claimed that they could take care of the Unicol, so Gildarts easily defeated the henchman and blew back the water so that Gray and Lyon could take care of it. Then they crossed the road and were met with the Council's army. They arrested Cappuccino and traveled back across the river and ended up here.

Kuzan briefly contemplated freezing them all, but ultimately decided against it. The girls didn't deserve it and Gildarts would be unaffected. He settled for saying, "There was nothing funny about that story."

"You gotta admit that it was a little funny."

"You three forgot about us until you crossed the river," Kuzan deadpanned.

The three males nervously avoided looking Kuzan in the eye as they stammered out paper-thin denials. Even if they had bothered to come up with a good excuse they were sweating worse than a bunch of chore boys sitting in a room with Sakazuki. He let out a sigh, it wasn't worth the effort to deal with them. "I don't care. But I'm not telling Ur," Kuzan declared. He took a small amount of joy at the looks on their faces before he shut the door in their faces and went back to his nap.

He didn't get to drift off on account of Ur yelling at the three for leaving them behind. Then there was a softer knocking at his door. He opened the door to an irritated Ur. The older woman walked past him and collapsed face down on the bed. She let out a long moan into the bed while Kuzan closed the door. She rolled over and stared at the ceiling. "What did I drink last night?"

"It was an hour ago and you ordered whatever the strongest thing in that bar was. Five shots of it."

"Oh, God. I told you about my childhood," Ur groaned as her memories came back. "Oh, God. I told you about my _guild._ I haven't talked about that in _years._ "

"To be fair, I only wanted to know if you had been in a guild before," Kuzan pointed out. He also wanted to point out that she had decided to tell him about her past before they started drinking, but wisely kept his mouth shut. Instead, he sat down next to Ur. "Do you feel better after talking about it?" he awkwardly asked. He didn't really pay attention during the mandated therapy sessions he had to attend when he was just starting out as a Marine, but it sounded like something they might have asked him once. Maybe. They really didn't bother with those after you started serving on the Grand Line. You either adapted to the insanity or they slapped you with a Section Eight and dumped you off on an island devoted solely to a giant insane asylum.

"A little bit? I don't know. It felt better to freeze that destructive idiot and my slightly less idiotic students for leaving us behind," Ur admitted. "I don't like thinking about the could-have-beens in my life. There's so many things that could have happened. I could've stayed in my mom's flower shop, I could've not gotten pregnant, I could've told Shirato about Urtear and stayed in town, I could've just gone to the hospital instead of taking a job to have an alibi. So many different choices that could have been a better life."

Ur's words left Kuzan thinking about his own could-have-beens. The way he could have done things differently in the past. He could have never eaten his Devil Fruit, could have been more motivated to train under Garp when he was younger to beat Sakazuki, could have stood up to the Marines with their "Absolute Justice". Dammit, now he was depressed again. He really hated this introspective stuff. He needed to change the subject.

"Would you change it?"

Ur looked over at Kuzan. She wasn't sure she had heard him right. "What?"

"If you had the chance, would you go back and change your actions?" he clarified.

Ur thought about his words. Would she? If she could change it she could save so many people: her parents, her guild, her lover, her town. She could have become a Wizard Saint, respected and acknowledged across all of Ishgar as one of the strongest mages on the continent. She could have gotten married, Urtear would have still died, but she might have had other children. She would have never have never lost her leg to Deliora. It was nice to imagine a life full of her old family and friends, happily swapping stories and going on jobs in Snow Angel.

But there were things missing from the idyllic picture she was painting. Her students weren't there. They'd have lost their lives in the aftermath of Deliora's attack, frozen to death in a destroyed city surrounded by corpses. And it wasn't just them, Ur had saved many others after Snow Angel was destroyed. She had officially retired, but people still found ways to contact her about strong monsters that had grown in the mountains. She had met Gildarts on one of those requests after she had saved a couple of kids from a monster. If Snow Angel had survived, then she wouldn't have been able to save Kuzan either. He would have frozen to death up in the mountains, or been attacked by a monster and eaten.

"No," she finally answered. "I would love to save everyone that died, but I wouldn't want to never meet everyone that I met after their deaths. Snow Angel happened, it's a chapter of my life that hurts to remember and think about and I might reach for a bottle instead of going to a therapist every time it comes up, but it happened. Things happen that you wish you could change, but you can't. That's life. I'd like to think that I've moved on from it. That sharp pain of agony is now a dull ache of sorrow. You can't reset the past, you've just got to move forward."

Kuzan regarded Ur for a moment, "That's a very admirable way to live. I've seen plenty of people stronger and wiser than you that have cracked under something far weaker."

That's right, Kuzan had served in a military for most of his life. "What about you?" Ur asked. "Are you one of those that have risen above your past tragedy to become stronger?" she joked.

Kuzan hadn't done anything like that. He had always pushed such things to the side. Always following orders so that he couldn't be blamed for acting on his own. Every time he took the initiative and followed his gut he ended up working against the Marines. Robin stood out prominently in his mind. The only survivor of Ohara that he had let go as a tribute to his fellow Vice Admiral Saul's memory after he froze the giant to death. Done more out of guilt than actually feeling bad for the girl. He never went out of his way to do anything that could make his life harder. Any tragedy he avoided or ignored. He spent his time training the next generation of Marines so that he would be the last choice to send out to perform some menial task for the World Nobles. He was just too lazy to form a real attachment with people that was strong enough for him to care if they died.

"No."

In the end, he was just a lazy bastard that had done the bare minimum he needed to do to become strong enough to be given a mostly free reign of the seas. He lost to 'Fire Fist' Ace for fuck's sake. It was a tie, but he knew that he had lost that fight. The only advantage the kid should have had over him was his Devil Fruit, yet he was able to hold Kuzan to a standstill. No wonder he had only managed to scar Sakazuki, the bastard was stronger than him in every category.

Ur mistook Kuzan's self-deprecation and dour expression for a reaction to her question. She hastily apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude or bring up any bad memories."

Kuzan waved off her concerns, "It's fine. You didn't mean anything by it. I'm just thinking about… things," he lamely finished.

The atmosphere in the room turned awkward. The two sat on the beds without saying anything and fidgeted in place. They always seemed to end up talking about depressing things when they were left alone. Was that what drew them together? A pair of shitty pasts that sent them away from their old lives and into a journey to find a better one?

Both ice users let out a silent sigh of relief when there was a cracking sound and Gildarts shattered the ice surrounding himself, Gray, and Lyon. Unfortunately, he also shattered the floor underneath them and sent the trio plus the sisters they rescued crashing down onto the first floor. The sound of their curses floated into Kuzan's room and caused the pair to break into a small smile.

"I guess we should pack up and go help those idiots. How they ever managed to do anything without us is beyond me." Ur stopped at the doorway and looked back to Kuzan, "Even if it didn't help much, thank you for listening."

"Anytime."

* * *

Kuzan raised an eyebrow at Ur's back and waited for her to say something. She stubbornly refused to look at him and had crossed her arms to emphasize the fact that she didn't want to talk. Kuzan waited a few more seconds before turning back to the cause of her current petulance. The train they were taking to Magnolia Town had its entire front car frozen to the tracks by Ur. "Arara. Isn't that a little overkill?"

"It's a perfectly reasonable response," Ur defended without turning around.

"You froze the conductor."

Ur hmphed at him, "He wouldn't listen to reason."

Sure, if reason's new definition was Ur. After they had all crossed the Kaysh River (with Ur pointing out all the time that could have been saved if some people hadn't forgotten their beautiful teacher and traveling companion and Kuzan noting that he needed a new bike) Gildarts had given Ur a letter for Fairy Tail's master and split off to work on his pile of jobs. They had traveled with the newly freed sisters until they reached a fork in the road. The girls had gone north to where their relatives lived and the ice-make mages went west to Magnolia. There had been a brief incident with a thief in Foss, but Ur had frozen him in place after he tried to steal her savings and they had turned him over to the authorities. He had apparently been wanted in connection to a captured thief guild and they got a nice little reward that bought their train tickets. There had been an incident at the end of the train during the travels involving a poaching guild and two giant mole creatures. Some young mage had gone berserk on the poachers and destroyed the entire guild, the cage, and the caboose itself. He calmed down when Gray dropped a block of ice on him and explained the situation. Then Ur got pissed at them for abducting a baby mole-thing and "froze their balls off". He didn't check to see if she was being literal.

Which all led up to now. Apparently, Ur hadn't lost all of that rage, so when the conductor had said they had finished the repairs and were taking off before Gray, Lyon, and mage-kid whose name he never learned were back from exploring she froze the train in place. A completely rational response for pirates on the Grand Line or a toddler that didn't get its way maybe, but not for a thirty-something, respectable S-class mage that was raising two kids.

Speaking of kids, Kuzan felt the three enter his Haki's range. "Kids are back," he dully informed Ur's back.

The woman let out a sniff and unfroze the train. "Not a word of this," she warned the witnesses before boarding the train and finding her seat.

The conductor wiped his brow and looked at Kuzan, "And you're traveling with her voluntarily?" He gave a grunt of confirmation and the man raised a hand to pat his shoulder only to realize that his arm wouldn't go that high and settled for thumping him in the middle of his back. "You are a brave and strong soul, my friend," he said in a solemn tone that was tinged with a hint of awe. Kuzan just gave him a strange look. The people in this world were weird. All women were scary like that. Vice Admiral Tsuru was still the only person that could get Garp to listen to her without pulling rank—most of the time—for a reason.

After that there were no further incidents involving trains. They arrived in Magnolia Town and the other kid split away from them to go do whatever young, unattended mages with hair-trigger tempers and a tendency to destroy things with magic went. On second thought, they probably should have kept an eye on him, but on the other hand, Kuzan didn't want to deal with kids like that so it wasn't his problem.

They had quickly gotten directions to the Fairy Tail guild from a map at the train station. Once they reached it, Kuzan was sure that they would have been fine finding their own way to it. It was an impressive looking building that stood at the end of town and was taller than pretty much every building in town except for the cathedral. There was a big sign with the guild name on it over the entranceway and the guild symbol proudly displayed on a sign on the building's front.

"This is Fairy Tail," Gray said in amazement. He was excited to see their new home. Gildarts had hyped it up as a place filled with super strong mages with his stories and the two kids that had heard them were filled with excitement, no matter how much Lyon was trying to hide his.

Ur had walked up to the door and found a piece of paper on the door. She swore after reading it and Kuzan walked up behind her, "What is it?"

She held the paper out to him. "They're away," she summarized the short message. The paper was pinned to the door with an icicle. "What the hell do they mean, "away"?!" she yelled out in frustration.

"Probably that they aren't here," Lyon snarked at his teacher. He quickly regretted it when she leveled a glare at her silver-haired student. "Um, I mean, I'm hungry?"

Ur glared at him a moment longer before sighing in frustration. "Yeah, sure. Let's get something to eat.

 **Break**

They stopped at a café that was close to the guild and ordered some pretty decent food. It would have been better if Ur wasn't constantly complaining about Fairy Tail being closed the whole time. She apparently had been more excited to join than her students. "I'm just saying that it's completely unprofessional for an entire guild to skip town like that," Ur finished making the same point for the fifth time.

"Who are youse guys?" a rough sounding voice asked them. They looked over to see a younger guy in a leather jacket smoking a cigarette and drinking a large mug of beer while leaned back in his chair. He had the most ridiculous pompadour they had ever seen and was wearing a pair of sunglasses even though it was pretty cloudy out. All in all, he looked like a teenager trying too hard to be cool. The man took a deep swig of his beer before continuing, "Youse gots some business with Fairy Tail?"

Ur glared at the man, but kept her temper in check. He seemed to know something about Fairy Tail. She could freeze him later. "We're mages looking to join the guild. I was given a letter to give to the master from one of their mages."

"A letter, huh? Who's the one that gave ya that letter?" the man asked while putting his mug down. They now had his full attention.

"Gildarts."

"Gildarts?!" the man exclaimed in surprise. His chair hit the ground with a thud and the smoke cloud that had been hovering around his head shot out and snagged the letter before Ur could react. He examined the writing on the envelope, "Yep, that's Gildarts's writing all right." No one else could manage to write in a scrawl that was bad enough to give the reader a headache, yet still be legible quite like him.

The man then found himself frozen up to his head in ice with a very pissed off woman in his face. Never a good place to find oneself. She snatched the letter out of his smoke before freezing that as well. How did she even do that? She even got the tip of his cigarette. The man had more pressing things to be concerned about though, "You have until five to explain yourself before I freeze your balls off. Five."

"WAIT, wait! I'm a Fairy Tail mage," the man shouted out. "I'm Wakaba Mine. Half of the Smoke and Fire team. My marks on my chest. Please don't freeze me," he pleaded. He preferred his balls unfrozen, thank youse very much.

Ur gave him an unconvinced look, but unfroze his torso. Wakaba unzipped his jacket and lifted up his shirt to show that there was indeed a Fairy Tail mark on his chest. The man sighed in relief when Ur unfroze the rest of him and he took a very deep drink from his mug. "Thanks fer not freezing me solid," he grudgingly said.

"Where's Fairy Tail?" Ur demanded. She wasn't feeling a lot of patience for the man right now.

"They're out on vacation. Every year the whole guild goes on vacation after the S-class trails, sorta like a big "the assholes on the Council didn't shut us down" celebration. They should be back tomorrow," Wakaba explained.

Ur relaxed a little. So things weren't so bad after all. She had been afraid that they were going to have to wait in Fairy Tail for over a week before they got back. "Is there a place we can wait for them?"

Wakaba puffed on his cigarette while thinking. He could have offered for them to crash at his place for the night, but the lady scared him so that was out. He'd just show them to a hotel. "There's a hotel called The Fairy's Garden nearby. We use it for people that are visiting Fairy Tail and new recruits that haven't found a place to stay yet. Youse guys qualify for that last one. Although," he looked Kuzan up and down, "I don't think they'll have a bed big enough for youse."

"I'm used to it," Kuzan replied. He was going to have to see if there was a way to magically shrink himself. Hitting his head off of the ceiling and doorframes and having to make his own bed was getting quite annoying.

"Suit youseself," Wakaba said with a shrug. He downed the last of his drink and left some money on the table before leading them through town. The Fairy's Garden was a small two story building that was just out of earshot of Fairy Tail's antics while still being in sight of the building. Wakaba signed them in with an explanation that the girl they normally had running the desk was also on vacation. The rent was cheap and they settled on three rooms.

"And like that youse all are good," Wakaba said as he finished signing a paper. "Here's your keys and I guess I'll be seeing youse around the guild." He walked out the door with a "Welcome to Magnolia," thrown over his shoulder before going back to his day drinking. These sorrows weren't going to drown themselves!

* * *

Fairy Tail had gotten back from their vacation late last night, so the ice mages stayed another night in the Fairy's Garden after spending the day exploring Magnolia Town. The next morning saw them walking into an open and decently filled Fairy Tail. Kuzan appreciated the tall ceiling and entranceway that he didn't have to duck to fit under. This place was already at the top of his list of good places to stay in this new world.

Ur confidently lead them over to a short old man with a gray moustache and a strange hat. She stopped in front of the man and nodded to him, "Master Makarov."

"Hm?" the old man hummed before taking a good look at her. His eyebrows went up in surprise, "Ur? Well that's a face that I thought would never grace our doorstep," he said with a big smile on his face. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good. Picked up some students, lost a leg. Nothing too exciting," Ur joked.

She was indeed walking on an ice construct. So was her tall companion. That was a story that Makarov would have to hear later. But for now he cared more about why she was in Fairy Tail. "Would you happen to be coming out of retirement?" the old man asked in a tone that was both curious and a little hopeful. He had always like Ur and had backed her as a candidate for the Wizard Saint position. Whether that had hurt or helped her case he had never found out since she had retired before a decision was made.

Ur smiled at the old man. Makarov always was a sharp one. "It just so happens that I am. These are my students, Gray and Lyon," she gestured to the boys.

"Hey, Gramps," Gray said while Lyon just grunted. Ur made a mental note to increase combat training later for their disrespect.

"Sorry about their attitudes. They're boys." The two students felt a shiver go up their spines at Ur's tone. They knew they were in for it next training session.

"Yes. My grandson is around their age," Makarov nodded in sympathy. He felt her pain. "Children are so disrespectful to those that take care of them."

Ur nodded back, "Indeed." She then brought the conversation back to her request, "We would like to join the Fairy Tail guild."

Makarov's grin grew wider. "Of course. And what about your tall friend?"

Shit. Ur had forgotten about Kuzan. He had never given an indication if he wanted to join Fairy Tail or not. She had invited him on her journey West and he had tagged along without issue, but what if he wanted to keep moving? He was a wanted man by his home country. Settling down in a famous guild might not be good for his cover.

Ur didn't need to worry. Kuzan had already decided to join the guild. It was home to everyone he had gotten to know in this world and seemed like a decent enough place. He could live with doing some merc work to make a living. It's what he would have done if he hadn't joined the Marines anyways, and there was no way he was enlisting in the army to work his way up from a chore boy again. That shit was for the birds. "I would also like to join." He noticed that Ur and her students breathed out little sighs of relief at his decision. It was nice to know that someone wanted him around.

"Oh. I'm supposed to give this to you," Ur said while pulling out the letter. "Gildarts gave it to me."

Makarov took the letter and could feel a headache coming on. Damn Gildarts and the chicken scratch he called penmanship. Makarov read the letter and nodded at its contents. He stood up and jumped up to the railing while performing several backflips and sticking the landing. "Listen up, you brats!" he yelled out at the guild to get their attention. All noise stopped as they looked up at Makarov for his announcement. "We've got four new members joining us today! Gray and Lyon here," he pointed down at the two boys that had somehow managed to lose both their shirts in the time it took Makarov to get up there. "And, by recommendation of Gildarts, our two new S-class mages, Ur Milkovich and Kuzan!"

Kuzan and Ur both jerked their heads up to stare at Makarov as the guild erupted in applause. S-Class? That's what had been in Gildarts's letter?

Makarov hopped back down to the counter. "Congratulations, you two. That's the first time Gildarts has ever recommended someone be made S-class without taking the test. We're expecting great things from you." He was going to make Ur an S-class mage anyways, from what he could sense from her, her power had only grown since her retirement. She wasn't slacking with her students' training. The surprise came in the form of Kuzan. Gildarts had said that had supposedly killed Deliora up north and was stronger than Ur. Makarov could feel that, but killing one of Zeref's demons was no small feat. He wondered just how strong this mystery man actually was.

Bah, enough of those thoughts. It was time for celebration. Makarov reached down under the bar and pulled out the guild stamp. "Now, where do you want your marks?"

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, look. I updated a thing. So, we're at Fairy Tail now. Next chapter or two are going to be shorter and will focus on our favorite little orphans joining the guild and how Kuzan will interact with them. That'll be for a few chapters before we get to canon events. Even then I'll probably have Kuzan and Ur off somewhere doing some S-class stuff. Or fluff. God knows that my fics could use some more of that. Until then, later.**


	6. Chapter 6: Settling In

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 6: Settling In**

 **A/N: Sir Godot's taking a break from beta-ing so I need a new one, mostly for editing before I post a chapter. PM me if you're interested.**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _'Flashback'_

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Porlyusica's Hut**

Kuzan and Ur shared a look as the old pink-haired woman continued to rant to her house about what idiots the two ice mages were. After officially joining the guild, Makarov had recommended that the two have their burns examined by Fairy Tail's Medical Advisor to ensure that they were healing properly.

They were regretting their decision to listen to him.

Porlyusica was an old lady that was quite vocal about her hatred of humans and the many "idiotic things they believed were proper medical treatment." She had taken one look at Kuzan and Ur's ice legs and immediately ordered them to strip off their pants so she could get a better look at them. Then she got a glimpse of Kuzan's hand and got rid of his shirt. It was nothing short of a miracle that the sight of his scars didn't give her a stroke. Once they told her that their burns were self-medicated Kuzan suspected that they might have at least given her an aneurysm.

Porlyusica began to go on and on about the proper treatment of burns and scar contractures and the risk of infection and more medical jargon that flew over their heads. Kuzan's knowledge of medicine consisted of "if you get hurt go to the medic" and he hadn't used that in years. Ur had gotten offended when Porlyusica started out, but the old bat had silenced her with a look and the threat of a broom and she silently agreed to be the bigger woman and dropped it.

All of which led to Kuzan and Ur sitting in their underwear on stumps that were definitely not made for people who were just short of ten feet tall. His leg was almost up to his ears and Kuzan decided that Makarov could make up for putting them through this torture by teaching him how to shrink down far enough that he wouldn't have to hear his good knee cracking in his ear ever again.

Porlyusica finished measuring some pale liquid out into something that looked suspiciously like a cauldron before giving the whole thing a stir. Apparently satisfied, she stopped her ranting long enough to fill several jars with the cauldron's contents before turning to the two adults and shook her broom at them, "Listen up, idiots. Since you two decided that you had the medical know-how to take care of some of the worst third degree burns I've ever seen instead of stopping at a hospital like _sensible_ people, you've gone and gotten the areas permanently scarred." She pointed at Kuzan, "You won't have feeling in your right hand again. The nerves are destroyed and I'm frankly surprised you still even have that hand. Same for your side, shoulder and what's left of your leg What did you do, go swimming in a volcano?" She turned to Ur before he could answer, "As for you, your leg was cauterized instantly. It's burnt at the end and that's it. That's why you two aren't feeling the effects of having a hunk of ice pressed against your legs, the area's already dead." She gestured to the jars, "Those are a healing balm for your burns. It will help keep away infections and will keep your skin moisturized so you don't drop dead of dehydration. Put this on first thing in the morning and again at night. I'd tell you to not to overexert yourselves, but I have better things to do than waste my breath on idiots that aren't willing to listen to their doctor."

"We aren't idiots—" Ur began to protest only to duck as Porlyusica swung her broom at her. Kuzan still got hit for his crime of sitting next to Ur when Porlyusica was trying to hit her.

The old woman shoved her broom up under Ur's nose. "You're members of Fairy Tail, aren't you? You're all a bunch of reckless idiots without an ounce of self-preservation in your bodies who make a habit of ignoring their doctor. Now, leave. You're as good as you're going to get, so get out. I hate humans." Porlyusica shook her broom at both of them and they quickly gathered their things and made to leave only for Porlyusica to start yelling at them again.

"Not like that! You're not walking on those legs until they've properly healed."

"Do you have crutches for us to use then, bat?" Ur snapped. Her normally even temper threatening to snap.

"You're the ones with _Ice-Make Magic,_ make some!"

Kuzan sighed as the argument that Ur had been dying to have since they first walked into the tree-turned-hut started and the two women began to hurl insults at each other. He made himself a chair that he could actually sit in and got comfortable. He wasn't getting involved in a spat between two stubborn women until magic started flying.

* * *

"The nerve of that old bat! She acts like we're a couple of kids that can't stop picking at a scab! I think I know how to take care of an injury!" Ur ranted as they walked back to Fairy Tail on their ice prosthetics. Crutches her ass. They ditched those the second she stepped out of the bat's house. "I've broken a leg before, it isn't that hard to deal with. This is even better! Now I don't need a stupid cast."

Kuzan made a sound that he hoped Ur would take as agreement and let her continue to complain. She hadn't taken Porlyusica's dismissal of her basic first-aid well, especially when she had started mentioning her disbelief with how her students managed to survive with her. That's when Ur tried to freeze her solid and he made the tactical decision to pull her away before the hut turned into a winter wonderland.

They walked into Fairy Tail and grabbed a spare table. Ur looked over to where Gray and Lyon were talking to the only person in the guild near their age, a brown-haired girl named Cana who used some kind of _Card Magic_. She was a tad disappointed that there weren't more kids around their age since that was one of the reasons she chose to join a guild; so Gray and Lyon could be with people their own age. Lyon especially needed to make friends ever since that incident with Deliora. She had watched the scowl that he tried to wear anytime he saw her or Kuzan disappear when they had been traveling with Mary and Amelie and again after Pause joined them on the train. As long as he had friends, Ur was sure that Lyon would let go of that anger inside him. He might never get over her perceived betrayal as the strongest, but Ur would rather he hated her and was with friends that kept him happy than being consumed by the desire to be better than her. Lyon still listened when they trained, but everything she said he'd question and every method she outlined he'd try to do on his own. He had stopped using both hands and dug in his heels when she berated him for it, justifying his choice with not-so-subtle barbs about Kuzan not using one hand with his _Ice Magic_ and being stronger than her. She had to keep an eye on him before his stubbornness got him killed.

She just wanted Gray to be happy and to stop with his damn stripping. Her fault her ass! Lyon didn't have that problem and she had been training him longer than Gray. It was how her grandfather taught her father, how he taught her, and how she taught them and he was the only one that had ever stripped outside of training. Damn brat was going to get the Rune Knights called on her.

Even now she watched Gray somehow lose his shirt while in the middle of saying something to Cana. The girl pointed out that it was gone and he cursed. Without his shirt, his dark blue guild mark could be seen on the right of his chest. Ur knew that Lyon's silver mark was on the opposite side because he didn't "want to share another thing with Gray," or so he claimed. Her own guild mark was in the middle of her chest, just below the base of her throat. It also happened to be the exact opposite position of her old Snow Angel mark and in a very dark purple instead of white.

"Bel— jewel for your thoughts?"

Ur picked up the drink as it slid towards her and took a sip. Hot tea. She turned back to Kuzan. "Do you even have a Jewel to spare?" she jokingly asked.

"I don't have a Jewel period. That's why I grabbed this," Kuzan unfurled something she hadn't seen in years. An S-Class job poster with a lot of zeros on it.

She took the offered poster and read over the request. "Haven't even had the guild mark for a day and already taking a job. Talk about jumping into the deep-end feet first," she muttered. The job was to take care of a couple sea monsters that were disrupting trade routes between Fiore and Bosco. High risk, large reward, time-consuming, someone had failed to complete it before, mages were injured, at least one had died, pretty standard S-Class mission. "You want to start with this?"

Kuzan shrugged, "Work with what you know. And I've killed a few dozen Sea Kings in my days. These can't be worse than that." Kuzan took the request back and shoved it into a pocket. "I'm actually surprised that they're offering this much for something as simple as this." It did make it easier for him to make a lot of money though. He'd have enough for the essentials—clothes, sleeping mask, a bike, place to stay, etc.—and plenty left over to coast on for a couple of months. If S-Class jobs were like this, then he could consider this his retirement plan. Do a big job every couple of months and spend the rest of his time relaxing.

Ur rolled her eyes and sipped her tea. "Not everyone finds jobs like that easy, Mr. Demon-Killer. Us mere mortals have to break a sweat when killing monsters."

Kuzan snorted at Ur's dry tone and that she'd consider herself one of those mere mortals. She was hands down the fourth strongest Fairy Tail member he had sensed. If she was a Vice Admiral, then Gildarts and Makarov were on the level of the Admirals and he hadn't even seen them fight besides that time he tried to cut Gildarts in half when he first met him. "I've got to pay back my debt somehow."

Ur frowned at him, "Kuzan, you don't owe me anything, I've told you that. You saved me and my students from Deliora. If anything, we owe you."

Kuzan waved off her concern, "I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the trip here. I can't let you spend all your savings on this poor old man."

The tension left Ur and the corner of her mouth turned up in a small smile. "Emphasis on "poor" I see. How do you plan on paying for the journey down to the coast, Kuzan-ojisan? Do you want to take out a loan from this poor woman's savings?"

Kuzan gave a mock bow, "Thank you for your generosity to this old man, little woman." He stretched his hand out as part of the bow and it was no coincidence that his arm was parallel to his head and showed that even while sitting down and with his head bowed, Kuzan was still taller than Ur.

Ur playfully slapped his hand away from her head and Kuzan let it shatter into ice before withdrawing it. "Call me little woman again and we'll see how tall you are after I even out your legs," she warned him. The two shared a chuckle at the exchange and lapsed into a moment of silence as they finished their tea.

"I do want to sincerely thank you, Ur. You saved me from dying in the mountains and let me stay with you despite not knowing anything about me or how I ended up there. You even paid for everything while we were traveling. There aren't many people that would be that kind to a stranger." Kuzan bowed his head seriously this time, his forehead touching the table. "Thank you."

Ur lifted his head, "There's no need for that, Kuzan. I could never turn my back on an injured man. As for traveling, you saved my life and the lives of my students. It was the least I could do. Besides," Ur smiled at Kuzan, "that's what friends are for, isn't it?"

Friends. It had been a while since someone had called him that. Sure there were people he was friends with in the Marines, but that was mostly a subordinate-superior or teacher-student relation. Most of his friends were ultimately people he spent time with because they worked together. He couldn't really think of anyone that he could call a true friend. Even with Ur he hadn't been sure what they were. To hear her call him a friend was… nice. It was something that he hadn't felt in a long time. Again he found himself thinking that maybe it was a good thing he lost to Sakazuki. He absently scratched the bright blue Fairy Tail guild mark that was placed over where the new Fleet Admiral's fist had gone through his chest as he smiled back at Ur. "Yeah."

They settled in a comfortable silence again and watched their new guildmates for a minute before Kuzan asked, "Can you tell me something?"

"What?"

"How do I actually accept this job?"

Ur stared at Kuzan incredulously, "You grabbed a job without knowing what to do with it?"

"I know what to do with it: I bring it to you and ask for advice."

Ur rolled her eyes at him and groaned, but couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her. Soon the chuckle evolved into laughter and Kuzan joined in. Ur hadn't realized how much she missed this, being part of a guild.

It was good to be back.

* * *

The days soon began to blur together as the new Fairy Tail members settled into a routine. Ur was staying in Fairy Hills' female dormitory until her new hut was finished being built and Kuzan, Gray, and Lyon were staying in the male dormitory on the next hill over. When she wasn't training them, Ur took Gray and Lyon out on jobs to help them afford rent and get experience doing the various types of jobs and fighting other people. Occasionally she'd arrange spars for them against other guild members. Mostly Cana and sometimes Makarov's grandson Laxus. She even managed to bully Macao and Wakaba into fighting with them once or twice. Ur would fight them as well if she ever thought they were getting overconfident and to make them work on their teamwork.

Lyon and Gray butting heads became a common occurrence in Fairy Tail, one that the guild found hilarious and Ur found the constant source of a headache. Lyon was becoming more obsessed with becoming powerful and surpassing her, no matter how hard she tried to get him to drop it. He had quickly latched on to Laxus when he learned that the blonde teen was actually stronger than most of the guild and was the favorite to become the next S-Class. Their relation gave Ur hope that she could save Lyon from his obsession.

Honestly, it was stressful dealing with the two of them sometimes. Lyon was being a stubborn little brat about her not being the strongest, but she was confident that he'd get over it. Mostly confident. Somewhat confident. She'd kick his ass a little harder in their next spar, maybe take him and Gray on a more dangerous job later that week. Nothing too extreme, just a little monster hunting. As for Gray, he needed to lighten up. Maybe she'd start hitting him with an ice cube when he was being moody. Or start leaving him alone with Cana some more. She was good for him.

At least she had Kuzan to help her work off some stress.

* * *

Ur's back arced as she avoided Kuzan's sword and transitioned into a backflip that took her out of his range. Her own sword was held defensively in front of her as she watched him carefully.

The two ice mages had taken to sparring with each other as no one else in the guild besides Makarov could put up a challenge. When you could freeze Macao's flames with a wave of you hand there wasn't anyone eager to test their luck.

Currently, they were working on adjusting their fighting styles to compensate for their missing legs and Kuzan's burns. Fortunately, they were able to get their prosthetics to weigh the same as their limbs, so their balance was mostly fine, but they did walk with limps and Kuzan couldn't bend his knee anymore, but he was trying to find a way around that—something about modeling it after a real prosthetic. He had been fine on the trip to Fairy Tail, but his mobility was noticeably hindered and he had powered through several things that he shouldn't have since he never stopped acting like an Admiral at full strength. Ur was also using the training to get stronger. She might not have let her training slack and had grown stronger during her retirement, but there were still people stronger than her out there and she was more likely to encounter them now that she was working again. Kuzan being one such example.

Ur's sword was discarded and a trail of thorns was sent at Kuzan only for the former Admiral to block with a wall of ice. He leapt on top of the wall and formed several spears around him that he began to fire at Ur. She started to dodge to the left, but was forced to make a shield before they overtook her. She replied with a barrage of ice arrows that he countered with his own ice darts. "Hey! You're supposed to be moving!" Ur yelled at him. She then formed a giant hammer over Kuzan's wall and dropped it on him.

Kuzan hopped off the wall and was forced to keep moving as miniature spiked geysers erupted around his feet. He attempted to form another platform, but Ur broke that with another hammer. "Arara," he muttered before touching the ground. The ground quickly froze over and he finally managed to stand in place for more than a second.

Unfortunately, it only lasted for two seconds before one of Ur's _Ice Geysers_ broke through his _Ice Time Capsule_ and managed to spear through his good leg, destroying it in a shower of ice shards. Ur panted a bit, but still managed to smirk at him from across the clearing. "That's my win."

"So it is," Kuzan agreed. He headed over to where they had left their bags after his leg quickly reformed and clicked his teeth when he saw that they were frozen over. "Give me a second." He held his hand out and concentrated for a bit before dispelling his magic.

Ur took a seat next to the bags and tossed him a water bottle before grabbing one for herself. "I still can't believe you never had to dispel your magic before." She had been shocked to discover that Kuzan didn't know how to dispel magic last month. He had been about to throw away his lunch after accidently freezing it before Ur asked him what he was doing. The entire concept of dispelling his ice had never occurred to him.

" _I told you that I mostly practiced at sea. No one cares if you dropped a bunch of ice into the ocean, it's just water," Kuzan reminded her. "Other than that, it would break apart on its own or melt."_

" _What did you do if you froze someone?" she asked._

" _Like I said: melted or broke."_

Ur winced at the memory. With his relaxed approach to everything and penchant for naps since he had bought a sleeping mask, it was easy to forget that Kuzan had been a high-ranking military officer. She hadn't gotten used to the casual way that Kuzan treated death and debilitating injuries as an everyday occurrence. She was no stranger to death and injury, but the nonchalance that Kuzan had about it was slightly concerning. He had mentioned a war after he first woke up and she suspected that he had grown desensitized to violence a long time ago. Hopefully, the fight he had been in before she found him was the last time he'd have to use that mindset.

Kuzan's voice jolted Ur out of her thoughts and she quickly glanced up at him. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said that you were fighting pretty aggressively. Lyon actin up again?" he repeated. Ur tended to hit harder and attack more recklessly when she was angry about something. Her face and body never showed it, but her fighting style was completely different. Those geysers of hers shouldn't have been able to punch through his ice that quickly or easily and judging by the way she had been panting, they had taken a lot more magic to create than normal.

Ur groaned and dramatically flopped back and draped an arm over her eyes. "Yeah. I lectured him about using two hands again, but he wouldn't listen, _again._ He doesn't care about his creations' stability, only their strength. I tried to explain that stability is a part of strength, but you know kids, if it doesn't make it hit harder then it isn't stronger."

"Is he still beating Gray in their spars?" Kuzan asked.

"Yep. Really not helping my case since Gray's using two hands to cast. It's hard for _Static Ice-Make_ to match up with _Dynamic Ice-Make_ at a young age like them." Ur unconsciously slipped into her teaching tone, "You need to train your body as well as your magic reserves. You're limited with your range—an arrow can't change direction in midair like a bird can. Swinging a hammer can hit a lot harder than dropping one over your opponent if you're strong enough. Gray's still a year younger than Lyon and that matters a lot at their ages." Ur let out a sigh, "I wish there were more kids their age in the guild. Cana can't beat Lyon and Laxus is a teenager—he might as well be an adult in Lyon's eyes."

"You'll figure something out." Kuzan assured her.

"I hope so. He's just drifting away so fast. I feel like I'm losing him." Ur finished in a small voice.

"Like Urtear" went unsaid, but they both heard it. Ur's ultimate fear, losing one of her students. She said that they weren't a replacement for Urtear and she meant it, but they were something far worse. The kids she never had. He knew that Urtear had been unplanned, but that didn't' meant that Ur didn't want kids, or that she would have stopped at one. Gray and Lyon filled that gap. Kids that she could raise that were just younger than her first child, young enough that she could have kids the same age in another life. A replacement for a hole that she probably didn't even know was there. The thought of losing one of them was like losing her child, a feeling that Ur was already too familiar with.

Kuzan changed the subject, "So how is your hut coming along?"

"Pretty good. Builders say that it should only take a few more days to finish. I'm glad you convinced me to take that extermination job. Housing prices really shot up since I bought my last hut."

"That might just be because you insisted on making it bigger than your last one and added magic protections," he pointed out.

"Maybe." That was most of it, but prices _had_ gone up since her last hut was built. She had her new hut designed to let an almost ten-foot tall visitor walk in without hitting his head on anything, but that was kind of irrelevant since Kuzan had finally gotten the hang of the _Shrinking Magic_ he guilted Makarov into teaching him. He was still taller than average, but now he didn't hit his head every time he walked through a door. Another reason why they were only doing some light training. Kuzan need to get used to the fact that he was now three and a half feet shorter.

The height difference wasn't as much of an issue as it could have been. Kuzan mostly froze things from a distance, but he could fight up close and insisted on practicing that to a degree. He wasn't a master swordsman in any sense of the word, Kizaru was better than him, but he had been taught the basics when he first joined the Marines along with marksmanship. As an admiral-level fighter he was faster and stronger than most people and his Haki made his ice saber far harder and sharper than every sword without a name. He was staying shorter if he wasn't sleeping so that he could practice moving in this new form. He found himself ducking through doors and overestimating his reach and stride more often than not. It had led to several humiliating moments much to his annoyance and the guild's amusement. His eventual goal was to be able to shift between heights at will without it affecting his movements, but for now he would be content with winning against Ur.

His new height also let him find clothes that he could wear off the rack. He now had a white V-neck under a gray jacket, black pants, and black shoes to go with his navy sleep mask. He still had his old outfit in his room, but that was all he had to wear for his natural size.

"How's the life of a mage treating you, 'Frost Giant'?" Ur asked with a sly smile and Kuzan groaned.

"That's still a shit name." The Marine's system of giving their Admiral's codenames based on an animal and a color was better than that. Hell, the people in the bounty division was better at giving epithets than the Magic Council apparently was. "Is there really no way to change it?"

"Nope. Every S-Class mage gets one and that's it. The only way to get it changed is to take the title of 'The Strongest Man in the West,'" Ur told him.

"Who's that?" Kuzan idly considered challenging the man. If only to see how he stacked up against the heavyweights of this world. This system was a lot less defined than the Yonko and Marines.

"Gildarts."

Yeah, fuck that. He wasn't throwing down with a man straight out of every Marine's darkest nightmare. The guy destroyed his arm just by blocking his sword, he didn't want to see what he could do with his fist. He saw what Whitebeard had done to Sakazuki, the Admiral had been in the hospital for weeks after the war. There wasn't a lot that could be done to fix 'punched by an earthquake.' Gildarts magic was close enough to the Gura-Gura no mi that Kuzan didn't feel like testing it.

Ur chuckled at his face. "It's not that bad," she assured him.

"People with non-shitty names don't get to talk, 'Ice Rose.'"

"You don't have to use it. It's just a stupid nickname," Ur said.

"It's more than a nickname. An epithet is an identity. It's unique to a person and says something about them. There can be hundreds of people with the same name, but there will only be one person known as 'The Beast' or 'Dark King' or whatever title they give you. It can even turn something as simple as 'Red Hair' or 'Straw Hat' into a symbol. That's what you will be known as across the world. More people will know the name Ice Rose instead of Ur Milkovich, and that's what will matter. If Ur is known as the kind teacher who cares for her students like family and will help some random person she found in the mountains but Ice Rose is a frigid bitch who eats monsters for breakfast and picks her teeth with their spines, then people who never met you will assume the latter without ever learning about the former."

Ur was surprised at Kuzan's explanation. That was a lot more thought than she had ever put into an epithet. She always just saw it as something the Council assigned to spread popularity. "So, what is your problem with 'Frost Giant' then?"

"I've met giants, doesn't matter if they're Marines or pirates, they all share a strong sense of honor and bravery. They'd rather die than go back on their word and will never back down from a challenge. The blood of warriors run through their veins and is the source of their pride." There was a faraway look in Kuzan's eyes as he talked about giants that Ur recognized as him getting lost in memories. The moment passed and he returned to the present. "I am nothing like a giant and it is an insult to their legacy that their race is used in my epithet."

Ur didn't know how to respond to that and just kept silent. Kuzan didn't expect her to. Giants were the only race that Kuzan had respect for in its entirety. Those that didn't respect them were the ones that mocked their values of honor and fair combat. Kuzan respected their beliefs, but he didn't follow them. More than a fair share of giants had died to his ice without ever seeing his face. He was a Marine, a soldier, not a warrior. Honor was not something that lasted long in the fight against pirates. Pirates would agree to anything and then go back on their word just to gain an advantage. He had heard and seen plenty of examples of that happening. Your honor as a Marine tended to become more and more flexible over time and soon you'd end up fighting like a pirate anyways. The only difference was that your flag was white while theirs was black.

"Well, you can't do anything to change it now, so maybe you should change yourself."

Kuzan was surprised at Ur's words and she elaborated. "You said that you're nothing like a giant, right? So, what if you started acting like one. Do something to make it less of an insult to them." She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know anything about giants, so I might just be way off the mark here—"

"No," Kuzan interrupted. "You might be on to something." But it would be hard. He had fought with honor before losing it to the pirates. Maybe in a world without them he could find that honor again or, at the very least, some semblance of what it had once been. It could be a start.

"Great! In that case, you can start now. Break's over." She offered a hand to Kuzan. "Now get your lazy ass in gear so I can kick it around the clearing."

Kuzan grabbed the hand and let himself be pulled to his feet, "Good luck with that. There's no honor in letting your opponent strike you from behind."

The air in the clearing dropped again as the two ice mages went at it again.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay. More Kuzan and Ur stuff. Not a lot happened in this chapter and I'm not really sure why it came out that way. If anyone's curious about how Kuzan's first job went, he showed up, said that the sea monsters couldn't hurt a baby Sea King, then froze them solid in under a minute. Nothing interesting about that, is there? Next time our favorite redhead makes an appearance. Looking forward to that. Until then, later.**


	7. Chapter 7: Scarlet Squire

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 7: Scarlet Squire**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **Fairy Tail, X776**

Kuzan walked into the guild with a yawn and scratched at the stubble on his face. Without any Marine regulations to be held accountable for, he had gotten into the habit of not shaving for a few days until Ur told him he looked scruffy. Speaking of Ur, he found her sitting at their usual table in the back of the guild and joined her after grabbing a cup of coffee from the bartender. "Mornin'" he told her through another yawn.

Ur folded the top of her paper back and shot a look at Kuzan over it. "It's two o'clock in the afternoon, you lazy bum. Most of the day's already gone."

"Oh? Then I might as well go back to sleep," he said while beginning to rise from his seat only for Ur to whack his head with her paper. Kuzan sat back down with a roll of his eyes and took a satisfying sip of his coffee. Fairy Tail coffee beat Marine coffee any day of the week. The black nectar was magical. "It's not like anything important happens before noon anyways."

Ur sighed at Kuzan. He wasn't wrong, but he should be. Even with two years to get used to how lazy he was, Kuzan still managed to surprise her. It was like he only had two modes: super competent or super lazy. "You know, most retirees are supposed to find hobbies to fill up all their free time, not sleep for fourteen hours a day."

Kuzan accepted the change in subject as Ur conceding defeat. He finished his coffee before answering. "Napping is my hobby," he pointed out. "And I'm only semiretired."

"That's not my point and you know it," Ur told him. "All you do between jobs is sleep and train. There has to be something else you can find to do. What did you do in your downtime as a marine?"

"Sleep and train."

Ur's glare over the top of her paper informed him that she didn't appreciate him being a smartass. He scratched his chin and debated elaborating on what else he did. He didn't like talking about his past and Ur had pretty much stopped asking him about it these days. It was easier to keep your lies straight if you didn't elaborate too much and avoided questions. If anyone ever actually looked for the island nations he had described in his backstory they would quickly see that he was lying through his teeth. Fortunately, the burn scars over his body made it easy to justify not talking about what he did before Fairy Tail.

"I didn't just train by myself. I used to train some of the younger Marines as well," Kuzan admitted. "But I can't exactly do that here. No one uses a sword and the only Ice Mages—"

"—are my students," Ur finished. He had already pointedly denied Lyon's request to train him and Gray showed no interest in changing teachers. He had really started to improve under Ur. He still couldn't beat Lyon in their spars, but he was getting closer. She didn't think Lyon had noticed yet, but his one-handed constructs were breaking easier under Gray's attacks and her dark-haired student's shield was holding up longer against Lyon's attacks. Soon, Lyon would be in for a surprise when Gray caught up to him and began to surpass him. "So all you do is sleep and train then?"

"Well, I talk to you every day too. Does that count?"

Ur didn't answer immediately as she thought over what he said. It was true. Kuzan didn't really interact with anyone besides herself and her students. He would chat with Makarov sometimes—and Gildarts if he was in the guild—but other than that, he spent most of the day with her. Now that she thought about it, Ur spent a lot of time talking with him too. She spoke to some of the other guild members, like Macao and Wakaba, but not nearly as much as she did with Kuzan. "I guess it does," she finally answered.

The two then settled into their usual small talk; how Gray and Lyon were coming along, complaining about jobs they had done and the Magic Council, the latest gossip in the guild. Normal things.

Nothing interesting happened for another hour or two beyond Gray loudly declaring that Cana's divinations about him having fantastic luck today as bullshit and Ur chastising him for his language. Then a young girl about Lyon's age walked into the guild wearing what seemed to be a dirty and ragged cloth that someone had cut three holes in and thrown over her in some pale facsimile of a dress and a medical eyepatch over her right eye. She had a small sack thrown over one shoulder and stopped just past the guild's entrance to look around the building.

Kuzan felt the girl enter the girl with his Haki (which was also apparently powered by his magic now, and wasn't that fun to find out when he ran out of magic during one of his longer and more intense spars with Ur and got a face full of an ice hammer when he was distracted by its absence), but wouldn't have given her a second glance if he hadn't heard Ur's gasp.

Wondering what about a little girl could make Ur react like that, Kuzan turned around and gave her a once over. Then he pulled his fingers out of the table and gave her a second look to be sure. Unhealthily thin, yet with muscles formed from hard labor easily seen under and through the scrap of cloth she wore. Dirt that was caked into her skin and hair. A smell that spoke of not bathing in who knew how long. Callouses and dirt on her hands and bare feet that spoke of holding a tool for most of her life and an equally long lack of footwear. But the most telling sign was her eye. He knew that look in her eye. It wasn't the worse that he'd seen, it was actually a lot better than normal, but he could still see the misery and despair inside that eye.

"Slave."

Ur's attention immediately left the girl and focused on Kuzan. He had spoken so quietly that no one was supposed to hear it, but she had. She knew what he said, but she hoped she was wrong. "What did you say?"

Kuzan didn't turn to answer Ur, but she could see that he was both looking at the girl and seeing something else. When he spoke again it was still quiet, but she was supposed to hear him this time.

"That girl was a slave."

* * *

The girl had briefly spoken with Makarov before the old guild master invited her back into his office where they could speak in private. Kuzan had refused to elaborate on how he knew that the girl was a slave. Ur had only seen him act this way when something uncomfortable was brought up about his past and wisely decided to let it go. It did raise some concerning questions though. She knew that there were still some countries that had a slave trade and some of them were quite prominent like Bosco's. What had been the stand on slavery where Kuzan was from? Judging from the older man's reaction it wasn't uncommon, but how much it was accepted was still up in the air.

Several minutes of uncomfortable silence later, Makarov's office door opened and the girl walked out with a blue Fairy Tail symbol on her left arm. Instead of loudly introducing their newest member as usual, Makarov quietly led her over to where Kuzan and Ur were sitting. He beamed broadly at the two S-Class mages. "Yo! This little cutie here is Erza Scarlet. She's our newest member." He turned to the now named Erza, "Take a seat and order whatever you want from the menu. Tell them to put it on my tab." She nodded and hesitantly hopped onto one of the empty seats. Makarov handed her a menu and waited until her face was hidden behind it before mouthing "my office" to Ur and Kuzan.

The pair nodded and Makarov disappeared back into his office. Ur saw Gray begin to head over dressed only in his underwear and with a mischievous smile that could only mean trouble was brewing. She sharply shook her head at him and jerked her head back to his seat. For a second it looked like he was going to argue, but Ur shot him a _look_ and he slunk back to where Cana was giggling at him for getting shut down by his teacher without a word. She turned back to Erza and was surprised to see Kuzan leaning over her shoulder and pointing at the menu.

Erza ordered what he suggested and soon a piece of strawberry cake was brought before her. She suspiciously looked between Kuzan and the cake several times before her hand darted out to rip a piece off and quickly stuffed it into her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise, "it's delicious," she said in awe. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten something so good, not even before the Tower of Heaven.

Kuzan merely smiled at her. "Eat up." Erza followed his order with gusto and began to devour the cake before her in record time. Kuzan ordered a second piece of cake for the girl and after it arrived, he looked at Ur and then motioned to Makarov's door. Ur nodded and the two of them left Erza alone with her cakes and entered Makarov's office.

Makarov appeared to be lost in thought as he stared at a framed picture in his hand. He didn't react as the two mages entered. Kuzan lightly coughed into his fist, "Master?"

Makarov looked up from his pictured and they were surprised at how old he looked. The man had just celebrated his eightieth birthday that year, but despite his white hair and wrinkles, Makarov always carried himself like a much younger man. Now he seemed to sag into his chair and his eyes had lost some of their usual luster. He placed the picture back on his desk and turned his full attention to them. "You know why I called you in here."

"It's about Erza and that she was a slave," Kuzan stated matter-of-factly.

Makarov's brow raised in surprise and narrowed his eyes slightly, "How do you know?"

"Her eye. I've seen that look before."

Kuzan's answer raised more questions, but Makarov chose to ignore them. What the man had done in the past would stay there. There was no need to pry for the sake of curiosity. One shouldn't ask questions if they didn't want to know the answer. "Yes. Erza wouldn't admit where she was held beyond it being a tower where she and the other slaves were forced to work and she seemed quite frightened of someone in the tower. What she did tell me was that there was an attempted prison break and she's the only one that escaped."

"Why did she come here? There must have been closer towns that she could have stopped at." Ur asked. Magnolia was a large town, too large and populous for any operation that would use slaves as a workforce. They would have been discovered and reported within a month. Erza must have walked far to reach Magnolia and done it all barefoot. She must have had a reason to specifically pick Magnolia Town as her destination.

Makarov let out a heavy sigh and they could tell Erza's reason was the source of his current mood. "While she was held in the tower, she met a retired Fairy Tail member. One of my old teammates named Rob. He had retired to a little fishing village several years ago and must have been taken from there." The thought that his oldest friend had been taken as a slave without his knowledge filled Makarov with equal parts anger and regret. Anger over the people that had attacked him, and regret that he had fallen so out of touch with the man that he never noticed his absence. Fairy Tail's master took a deep breath before continuing, "Rob kept her and several other children's moral up in the tower. During the revolt, he gave his life to protect Erza from an attack. The trauma of his death awoke Erza's latent magic and allowed her to escape. She then came here because of the stories Rob had told her." Rob's magic was a rare type of _Reflecting Magic_ that allowed him to reflect any type of magical attack back at the caster, but it required the user to be strong enough to withstand the magic power attacking them. So, once Rob began to feel his years weighing him down and it became harder to use his magic, he retired. From what Erza had told him, he had used up the last of his life-force to stop that last blast and even that wasn't enough power to reflect it.

The trio of mages were silent for a moment. "How awful," Ur muttered while looking at the door leading back into the main room where Erza was sitting.

Makarov hummed in agreement. "She's been through a lot for one so young and I'm hesitant to leave her on her own after such a traumatic experience, which brings me to my request." The older man bowed his head slightly to the two younger mages, "I'd like for the two of you to watch over Erza and help her with her new life. She needs a positive role model and someone who will take care of her and make sure she is alright. Eleven is too young to be taking care of yourself alone. She still needs time to be young and carefree."

The two mages never got the chance to answer. A young girl's scream was heard just before large spike of unknown magic flared up in the main hall and was quickly followed by the sound of crashing furniture and breaking glass. All three older mages burst out of Makarov's office and were greeted with the not unusual sight of Fairy Tail in disarray. This time, however, it wasn't caused by one of the usual brawls.

Lyon was pinned into the wall by what appeared to be most of the tables and chairs in the guild along with whatever had been on top of them at the time. Shattered ice was scattered around him and he was bleeding from a head wound.

"Lyon!" Ur shouted in concern as she rushed to her student's side.

Kuzan and Makarov looked to the other side of the guild and found what had done that to Lyon.

Erza was shaking in the area that had previously held Ur and Kuzan's usual table. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she was drenched in sweat while breathing heavily. Kuzan could see that she was miles away from the guild at the moment and needed some space. "I'll take care of her," he told Makarov before appearing next to Erza in a burst of _Soru_. He picked her up and left the guild in another burst. Once they were outside Magnolia, he put Erza down and watched her gasp for breath. The shock of moving at such high speeds breaking her out of her flashback.

"Breath through your nose," he advised. Erza listened and after a minute had regained some of her composure. She didn't say anything and Kuzan was fine with that. He had slept through all the presentations about soldiers suffering from flashbacks due to stress and had no idea how he was supposed to respond to this situation. Ultimately, he decided to wait her out. Eventually, Erza got to her feet and started to walk away from Kuzan and Magnolia. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder before she could go far. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving," Erza said through suppressed sobs. "You probably don't—" her voice hitched, "want me to stay anymore."

Kuzan let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair. Why did he volunteer to do this again? "Sit down, kid." He guided Erza to the ground and turned her around. She looked pretty upset. Tears were welling up in her visible eye and her face was scrunched up in a valiant effort not to cry. He attempted to put her worries to rest. "Look. We you aren't going to get kicked out just because you trashed a bunch of furniture and put someone into a wall. That's pretty normal around here."

Nothing. He was hoping to get at least a giggle out of her with that, but no dice. Humor really wasn't his forte. At least she wasn't getting any worse.

"Why don't you take a deep breath, calm down, and tell me what happened?" Kuzan offered. "Get it off your chest."

Erza nodded in agreement and they spent several minutes with only the sound of her sniffles and hiccups. Eventually, she started to speak, "I was sitting at the table and eat my cake when this boy walked up to me. He introduced himself as Lyon and started talking about how all the new members had to fight to show how strong they were. I told him that I didn't want to fight, but he insisted. There was another boy without a shirt that came up and said the same things he said."

Kuzan could feel a headache appearing. Looks like Ur's students were in for an earful. She must've not heard any of this yet since he couldn't hear her yelling at them. He _had_ only taken them outside of the town after all. What those two were thinking picking a fight with someone who hadn't been in the guild for an hour was beyond him. Probably something stupid, along the lines of 'I'll show her I like her by hitting her' or something. That's how kids did it when they were that age, wasn't it? Hitting girls instead of hitting on them?

Erza was still talking while Kuzan pondered over the mysteries of young boys and their defective thought processes. "I told them that I didn't know how to use my magic and Lyon said that it'd be a short fight. He held out his hand and a bunch of these little birds made of ice appeared. They started pecking me and scratching me and they knocked over my cake. I was scared and didn't know what to do. I yelled and then I felt a big whoosh! and then the birds were gone and there was a lot of loud noises. I saw Lyon in the wall with all the tables and chairs, and everyone was against the walls, and then you and Ur-san and Master-san came out, and, and, and…" Erza trailed off as she started to hyperventilate again.

Kuzan snapped his fingers in front of the girl's face, "Erza!" She jerked at the sound of her name and wildly glanced around before finding his face. "Stay with me, would ya?"

Erza nodded and then looked down at her feet. "So, am I in trouble?"

"Not at all." Kuzan assured her. "If we punished people for every time they fought each other then that's all we would ever do. The only people that are going to be in trouble are Gray and Lyon. We should be hearing the screams any minute now."

"O-okay, Kuzan-san," Erza nervously said.

Another failure of a joke. He should really leave them up to Makarov. Kuzan got to his feet and held a hand out for Erza. "Come on, kid. Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Erza asked before taking his hand.

"We're going to get you some actual clothes to wear instead of that rag." Kuzan gave her a quick onceover, "And some shoes."

Erza's face fell. "But I don't have any money."

Kuzan waved off her concerns, "Don't worry about that. I'll pay." Well, technically, Makarov would be paying, he just didn't know it yet. Kuzan would just drop the bill off on him later.

Erza's face lit up at the news. "Okay!" She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up. Kuzan waited for her to let go so they could get going, but she didn't make any move to release his hand despite it being just a mass of burn scars and just stared up at him with her big brown eye. He relented, and the pair walked into town. It was then that Kuzan realized that he had no idea where a clothing store was. Everything he owned was custom ordered for his normal height and he just shrunk them down.

Not wanting to admit his lack of knowledge after promising to get Erza some clothes, Kuzan ended up just wandering around town with Erza in tow while hoping to get lucky. she didn't say anything about his wandering and seemed content to just walk with him until they passed a certain store.

Erza let go of Kuzan's hand and walked up to the store's display. She pressed her face into the glass and looked at the mannequins inside with awe at what they were wearing. "Shiny."

Kuzan had stopped when he felt Erza let go of his hand and looked over at the store that caught her eye. 'An armory?' he thought in confusion. He glanced between the silver armor on display and where Erza seemed to be trying to meld with the window. He wasn't sure what to say. Weren't little girls supposed to like frilly dresses? He awkwardly coughed into his fist, "So, um… see something you like?"

Erza's head made a squeaking sound as she nodded into the glass. She remembered taking one of the guard's breastplates during the revolt in the Tower of Heaven. It hadn't been very good, but it had done its job. If she had armor like the one in the store then she would have been better protected. She wouldn't have to have been protected. If she was wearing armor, then she'd be safe.

Kuzan ran a hand through his hair. He really didn't know anything about kids. "Alright, then. If that's what you want." He opened the door to the armory. "Okay, kid. Let's go see if they have anything in your size."

Erza looked up at Kuzan with a sparkle in her eye. "Really, Kuzan-san?"

"I said that we were going to get you clothes," he reminded her before muttering under his breath, "just expecting it to be dresses and shoes instead of breastplates and boots." Once they got inside, Kuzan headed to the front desk to talk to the shopkeeper while Erza wandered off. After confirming that yes, they had armor in stock that would fit a child and where it was, Kuzan turned around to see Erza holding a sword that seemed too big for her, yet she was spinning it around with one hand as if it weighed nothing. He decided to wait and watch for a moment. After a few seconds, he confirmed that Erza wasn't just swinging at random, she was fighting an imaginary opponent. He looked a little closer and saw that she was starting to swing faster and was unconsciously moving her free hand around as if she was holding a shield. He glanced up at her face and immediately moved to grab her sword. Her eyes had gone distant again. She wasn't fighting an imaginary opponent; she was having another flashback.

Kuzan stopped her mid-swing and gave an approving whistle. "Arara. That's some fancy swordsmanship there, Erza-chan. Where'd you learn that?"

The fog lifted from Erza's mind and she shook her head to focus herself. She wasn't fighting the cruel guards in the Tower of Heaven. She was out shopping with Kuzan-san, her new friend. She saw that he was waiting for an answer and hurried to stammer one out. "I, uh… I didn't. I mean, uh, I don't know?" It was a question not an answer. She flinched and tried again. "I mean, I, uh, didn't. It just came to me."

Kuzan hummed in response. A natural with a blade, was it? That was interesting. He had trained a few of those before. They were normally arrogant little pricks that thought that just because they were pretty good with a sword that being a Marine was going to be easy. It wasn't. It just meant that sword combat classes were easier. There was more to combat than just swinging around a sword. Most naturals weren't even good enough to block a bullet when they joined the Marines, even if they were from the New World.

Kuzan looked down at Erza and saw that she seemed sad about something. "What's wrong, kid?" He didn't really want to know, but it seemed like something he should ask.

Erza seemed to debate answering truthfully before saying, "I just. I just wish my magic was about swords." Seeing Kuzan's raised brow, she elaborated. "I don't like my magic. It's too big, and strong, and too much." She seemed to shrink in on herself. "All it does is hurt people."

"Isn't that all swords do as well?" Kuzan asked, honestly curious about her answer.

Erza shook her head. "No. Swords let me protect my friends. They let me protect myself. All my magic does is throw things around and break them."

From what Kuzan had seen, Erza seemed to be a natural user of _Telekinetic Magic_ or something along those lines. That was quite a powerful magic, and if she trained with it she could become one of the strongest members of the guild in no time. But, if she was afraid of her magic she wouldn't get anywhere with it. A little girl that preferred armor and swords over dresses and magic. How strange.

Kuzan made a decision. He took the blade off Erza, but instead of putting it back on the rack like she expected, he tucked it under his arm and headed deeper into the store. He looked back at her. "Come on. The armor is back this way."

Erza stared for a moment, then sharply nodded her head. "Right!"

* * *

It took several minutes to find the right sizes, but in the end, Erza was the proud owner of a simple breastplate, armored boots, and a set of detached pauldrons. She was wearing them over her original rag-dress and carried a sheathed sword in her hands. She practically skipped out of the armory while Kuzan followed behind her at a more sedated pace and with a lighter wallet. Who knew that armor was so damn expensive? No wonder barely anyone wore it back home. Why drop all that money on a piece of metal that was just going to break the first time it got hit with a punch?

Their trip back to the guild was uneventful and filled with the sound of clinking metal and Erza's happy humming. When they go inside, she was surprised to see that the guild looked the same as when she first walked in not even three hours ago. All the broken furniture had been removed and replaced and everyone was acting as if nothing had happened. Kuzan led her over to where Ur was sitting next to two blocks of ice.

When they got closer, Erza saw that the two blocks of ice contained a frozen Lyon and the black-haired kid from earlier. Ur didn't seem to notice the two frozen mages and raised her hand in a greeting. "Hey. Where have you two been? Kuzan didn't fall asleep while he was with you, did he?"

Said mage rolled his eyes at her and sat down across from Ur while pulling a chair out for Erza. "Ha ha. For your information, we were out clothes shopping." He signaled to a barmaid for a beer. "I see you've been working on you sculpting."

"What? These?" Ur asked with false innocence. "They're my two newest pieces. I call them: _The Consequences of Acting like an Idiot_ and _Next Training Session will make you Cry_. What do you think?"

Erza thought that the two blocks of ice were shaking in fear, but didn't voice her thoughts. Ur-san was a very scary woman.

Ur took a calm sip of her tea and enjoyed the feeling of fear emitting from her frozen students. Served them right for attacking a new member within five minutes of her induction. "So, Kuzan out clothes shopping. I would have bet a decent chunk of Jewel that you didn't even know where the clothes stores were. So, what'd you get?"

Kuzan's beer arrived and he took a swig before answering. "It was for the kid."

Ur's eyes turned to Erza and she gave her a once over. She closed her eyes and began to rub at the headache she could feel forming behind them. "Kuzan," she began slowly, "why is Erza-chan wearing armor over her rag?" What she was wearing couldn't be considered clothing.

She could feel the man shrugging. "She wanted armor."

"The _point!_ is that she's still wearing her rag. Why is she still wearing her rag?"

"I ran out of money after buying her armor and sword."

"That's another thing; why did you buy an _eleven-year-old child_ a sword?" She tried to keep the incredulity out of her voice, she really did, but a little still managed to slip through.

"She wants to use swords instead of her magic."

Ur let out a long breath like a steaming teapot before laying her head on the table. _Men._ She glanced at her tea and sighed. So much for calming properties. Move over, tea. This was a job for alcohol. "You just walked around Magnolia and found an armory before you found a clothing store, didn't you?"

Kuzan took a long drink of his beer instead of answering, but that was okay since Erza did it for him. "How did you know that, Ur-san? Does your magic let you see the past?"

Ur lifted her head enough to look at Erza and just couldn't stay frustrated after seeing that race. "No, Erza-chan. I just know men very well." Ur smiled at Erza. "After you eat, we'll go and get you some actual clothes."

Erza looked down at her armor in confusion. "But I like what I'm wearing."

"You don't have to change out of your… armor, but you can't go around wearing nothing but armor every day. Also, I'm going to burn that rag you're wearing."

Erza didn't know what to say to that. Plus, the smile on Ur's face was starting to worry her. It seemed that surrender was her best option here. "…Okay?"

"Wonderful," Ur said as she patted Erza's head. She then swung her gaze to Kuzan. "As for you. You'll be hosting Erza-chan until we find her a more permanent residence."

"Why can't you do it? You're used to taking care of kids and I've only got one bed." Kuzan argued.

"You've got a couch, don't you?" Ur replied.

"I'm not making a kid sleep on my couch."

"Perfect! Did you hear that, Erza-chan? Kuzan's letting you sleep in his bed while he sleeps on the couch." Ur declared.

Alarm bells were going off in Kuzan's head. He paid good money for that bed. It was the most expensive and comfortable thing he owned. He wasn't going to let a kid ruin his mattress. He had put a lot of hours into getting it into the perfect condition. "Wait a minute, Ur—" he began only to stop when the woman in question narrowed her eyes at him.

"It shouldn't be a problem for you, Kuzan-kun.~ After all, you already bought the _little girl_ a _suit of armor and a sword!_ You would never dream of leaving her alone with them, _would you_."

It wasn't a question and Kuzan was getting a strong feeling that anything he could say would only dig him in a deeper hole. Ur had already added an honorific to his name and the look in her eyes told him that she hadn't gotten rid of all her anger at Gray and Lyon yet. He decided to move the conversation to a safer subject, like literally anything else.

* * *

Kuzan unlocked his door and led Erza inside his humble abode. "Well, here it is," he dully said.

Erza looked around Kuzan's house and was surprised by how plain it was. It was a very large house, yet it seemed so small. She could see the living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. She couldn't figure out why everything seemed so small when she knew that it should have been big.

Erza must have been distracted for a while, because the next thing she knew, Kuzan was telling her to get ready for bed. "Okay," Erza said before she got a good look at Kuzan and screamed in surprise.

Kuzan sighed. He was wearing only his boxers so Erza finally got a good look at all his scars. He was used to this happening. Everyone had the same reaction when they learned just how much of his body was scarred.

"Kuzan-san, you're so tall!"

That was new. Kuzan turned to regard Erza. "You were surprised by… my height?"

Erza nodded at him. "Yeah! You're so much taller than before."

It took Kuzan a few seconds to process what Erza was saying before he could respond. "Oh. Yes." He coughed nervously. "This is my true height. I use _Shrinking Magic_ to avoid startling people."

"Is that why everything's so big? Because it's Kuzan-san size? That's so cool! How did you get that tall?"

"Uh… Milk?" Kuzan hesitantly said.

Erza nodded with the determination that could only be found in children. "Then I'm going to drink a bunch of milk and grow up to be even taller than Kuzan-san!" she declared.

Kuzan was so far out of his element that it wasn't even funny. Time to resort to his default solution. "That's… great, kid? You can start on that tomorrow. It's time for bed. We've got a big day tomorrow."

"What do you mean?"

"Go to sleep and you'll find out." Kuzan told her before falling forward onto his couch.

"Okay! Goodnight, Kuzan-san!"

He responded with a muffled "G'night."

* * *

Kuzan and Erza stood outside and watched as the morning sun began to peek out over the horizon. Erza let out a jaw-cracking yawn and rubbed her eyes. "Why are we out here so early, Kuzan-san?" Kuzan responded by tossing the sword he bought for Erza yesterday at her. She caught it and curiously looked between it and him.

"You said that you wanted to use swords, didn't you?" Kuzan rhetorically asked. "Well, I'm going to teach you how to fight with one. Normally, I'd have you go over a sword stance and practice it a bunch of times to ingrain the muscle memories into you, but from what I saw yesterday that won't work. Instead I'm going to let you learn through experience." With a flick of his wrist, Kuzan formed a sword out of ice and held it in his right hand. He began to shrink, but his eyes never left Erza's. "You and I will fight every day until you've learned how to master a sword. Then we'll do it again with a spear, then an axe, then a knife, and so on until you have become so adept at fighting that you could beat a swordsman with a broken bottle. Do you understand?"

There was a fire in Erza's eyes as she grabbed the sword's hilt and pulled it out of the sheath in one fluid motion. With both hands on her sword, she stared down Kuzan from across the hill they were on. "Yes, Kuzan-sensei."

Kuzan smiled at her. Though he would never admit it out loud, he missed teaching. It had been an enjoyable experience even if he never did get very close to any of his students. He had tried living and fighting with honor here, but it just felt weird. He wasn't one for honor. And after having several years to look back on his time as a soldier neither were most of the Marines. But here he believed that he had found his redemption. By helping this little orphaned slave girl fulfill her desire of becoming a swordswoman in a world of mages maybe he could remove some of the guilt he felt from all the other slaves he turned away from.

"Begin."

* * *

 **A/N: So now Erza's here, and she's being trained by Kuzan! I don't think they ever actually specified how Erza learned how to fight with all her weapons so I came up with this. Fairy Tail ended this week, which is kinda sad, but I'm happy with how it ended. It was fun to follow the story till its end. The beta position is still open for this fic, PM me if you're interested. Later.**


	8. Chapter 8: Saint Ur

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 8: Saint Ur**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Dragon Talking"**

 **'Demon/Dragon Thinking'**

 _Magic/Magic Item_

 **Location/Time Change**

* * *

 **X777**

Erza ducked to the side and cut the charging ice dog in half with a stroke of her sword. She nimbly moved out of the way of another dog and stabbed a third through its head. Leaving it there as she requipped a pair of shorter swords into both hands and continued to carve her way through the ice constructs that Lyon threw at her. The silver-haired boy's cries of frustration accompanying the shattering of ice.

Off to the side, Kuzan and Ur lounged on a bench made of ice; sipping from water bottles and watching the show in front of them. "Erza's gotten better at using two swords at once," Ur commented as she watched the young mage counter Lyon's storm of ice birds in an impressive display of swordsmanship. Several cuts appeared on her arms and legs when she wasn't able catch all of Lyon's birds, but none of them were debilitating and Erza ensured that her vitals remained protected despite the armor she was wearing.

Kuzan hummed in agreement before taking a sip of his drink. "She's been quite excited to move on to more than one weapon at a time, especially with swords." That girl really had an unhealthy obsession with them. The look of devastation on her face when he started her with knives had been hilarious. "She's a little too reliant on them, though," he noted when a lucky bird slipped past her guard and left a small cut on her cheek. A shield would have been a better choice to weather Lyon's attack. The boy could only attack with his birds in a straight line and Erza should have seen how fragile they were with how easily she could break them. And would it kill her to actually use her armor for once? It wasn't cheap to repair, but it was still meant to be used dammit!

Regardless of Kuzan's opinion on the matter, Erza continued to ignore her breastplate and gauntlets in favor of trying to cut every bird Lyon sent her way. Eventually, his assault slackened and Erza used the break to duck out of the way and reorient herself. The field behind Ur's house was covered in shattered chunks of ice and wayward weapons that Erza had used in the spar. Though calling what they were doing a spar was a tad generous. This would be the fifth time that Erza and Lyon had fought each other and the other boy seemed to be quite intent on finally beating her. He had certainly improved on his casting time and the number of larger creatures he could create at once. The dog pack she had destroyed earlier showed her that much. They were still as fragile as ever Erza noted. Nothing like the ice constructs Kuzan created for her to practice on. While she enjoyed the challenge of fighting moving targets, it wasn't as challenging if all it took to shatter one was a swing of her sword.

Erza learned that Lyon hadn't slacken his attack on accident when a monkey jumped on her back from behind and gave her braid a sharp pull. She let out a short gasp that was more surprise than pain before smashing the creature with the butt of her sword. Its destruction seemed to be a signal to the rest of the monkeys that Lyon had made as they all started to descend on Erza. The redhead wasted no time throwing her swords away and spearing a few of the monkeys with them. She had a better solution to being surrounded by a group of numerous yet fragile opponents. A large flail found its way into her hands and with a mighty heave Erza spun in place while smashing through all the constructs in one move. She let go of it halfway through her second spin and sent it flying at Lyon, who dodged it with a yelp of fright.

"A flail? Really?" Ur asked her companion with a raised eyebrow. This was just ridiculous. Erza needed two hands just to lift the damn thing off the ground. How the hell was she supposed to use _that_ in a real fight?

Kuzan shrugged his shoulders, "It worked, didn't it?" he pointed out. "I said that I was going to teach her how to fight with everything she could. I just didn't expect her to be so… enthusiastic about it." It was kind of terrifying in a way. She might've been a natural, but the speed that Erza learned how to fight was mind boggling. He hadn't even been teaching her for a year and she was already well on her way to master every weapon he could think of. Erza was nothing short of a prodigy when it came to fighting. Displaying a level of raw skill only found in the best of swordsmen. The kind of skill that separated the greats from the legends.

Ur shot a knowing smirk at Kuzan. "You just couldn't say no to those big brown eyes of hers, could you?"

Kuzan saw no reason to reply to Ur's baseless and entirely false accusation. He was a former Marine Admiral, one of the strongest men in his old world and most likely this one as well. He was more than capable of standing up to a pair of shining brown eyes that begged him to teach her how to use the cool looking weapon that she had seen in the weapon shop _pretty please_. He took another drink and went over the pros and cons of letting Erza get that new magic eye of hers from Porlyusica. It was apparently too much power in her hands. Maybe he'd have her start wearing a blindfold. Tell her it was to train for fighting in the dark or something that would make her stronger.

Ur rolled her eyes with a chuckle at Kuzan's silence before looking back at the fight and sighing in disappointment as another of Lyon's constructs was shattered in a single swing from Erza's spear. "At least your student is willing to learn from you," she wistfully said.

"Lyon's still being difficult?"

"Hmm," Ur responded while resting her head on her hand as she watched said student create a tiger to lunge at Erza only for the young swordswoman to easily break it again. "He's gone beyond being difficult. He's now so concerned with proving that he doesn't need me that I'm afraid it's going to get him killed. His constructs have become even frailer as he puts more effort being put into making them faster and larger than making them durable. He's finally realized that Gray is catching up to him and it's making him irrational," Ur admitted.

Kuzan could see where this was going. "Has he accused you of playing favorites yet?"

Ur shook her head. "Not yet. But it's only a matter of time until he does." A weight seemed to press down on Ur. "The worst part is he wouldn't be wrong," she quietly admitted. "I have started to favor Gray over Lyon." She chuckled darkly and took a swig from her drink before rhetorically asking, "Aren't I a shitty teacher?"

"Nah. Every teacher plays favorites, we're just not supposed to admit it," Kuzan told her. "There's just some kids that are just naturally likeable and some that are little shits. As long as you don't give up on the shitty ones then you're not a shitty teacher." He could think of several horrible students he had taught over the years. He couldn't remember any of their names, that would be too much effort on his part, but he could remember that they existed. He taught them the best he could and if they went and got themselves killed after that then it was their own damn fault for not listening. He could see that in Lyon but wasn't too concern. This wasn't his world and the odds of him dying over something stupid weren't as great. There was still a chance, just a less likely one.

Kuzan's words assured Ur, if only a bit. "Still, he should know better just by watching Gray and Erza fight. Gray's weapons can take more than one hit from Erza without shattering because he's using both hands to make them."

"Have they fought recently?" Kuzan asked.

Ur's face twisted in discomfort at his question. "Honestly, I've been trying to avoid that. I think Gray's finally getting good enough to beat Lyon and I wanted to work on getting him to listen to me some more before that happens, but I haven't been making any progress and they're starting to get antsy. Gray feels that he can take Lyon and has been talking a lot of shit to him while Lyon's itching for a chance to prove that he's still the better mage. I'm not sure how much longer I can put it off."

Kuzan looked behind them to where Gray was practicing his aim with several targets set at various distances. Ur had wanted him to be productive while Erza and Lyon sparred and had told him to work on his aim with that cannon he had taken a liking to make. There was something strange about watching a ten-year-old sitting on top of a cannon gleefully destroying targets with giant ice balls, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe because Gray was only wearing his underwear again?

Kuzan turned his attention back to the spar in time to watch Erza finally close the distance between her and Lyon and thrust her sword at him. Lyon tried to put up an ice shield, but Erza's sword cut through it like butter and stopped just before his neck. She raised the sword until Lyon had to lift his chin up or get cut. "Yield," she commanded.

Kuzan watched defiance flash in Lyon's eyes and loudly clapped his hands to get their attention and stop Lyon from doing whatever stupid thing he was thinking of. "Okay, you two, that's enough. It's Erza's win."

Lyon glared at Kuzan before spitting to the side and backing down. Kuzan watched him pointedly avoid sitting next to Ur, going as far as to create his own seat next to the bench. Kuzan frowned. It seemed that Lyon was much worse than he thought. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be of any help here. That bridge had been burned years ago.

"Sensei?"

Kuzan turned away from Lyon and looked down to Erza. He recognized the worried set of her brow and softened his gaze. "Good job, Erza. But you're still focusing too much on offense. You have shields and armor for a reason. Don't be afraid to use them."

Erza nodded seriously. "Yes, Sensei."

Kuzan fondly shook his head at his student. She was such a serious girl. He reached down and rustled her hair, making it stand up in several places, "Relax. If you keep making that face then it'll get stuck like that." He chuckled as Erza ducked out from under his hand and shot him an irritated glare while she tried to fix her hair. "Don't forget to clean up this mess," He reminded her while gesturing to the various weapons scattered around the field.

"Yes, Sensei." Erza turned and began to walk over to the nearest weapon—a spear—but Kuzan stopped her.

"Erza," his tone was both exasperated and admonishing, making the young girl wince. "Use your _Telekinesis_."

"But—"

"No buts. You can't just ignore it because you don't like it." Kuzan's tone softened, "I told you that you don't have to learn how to fight with it, but you do have to learn how to control it."

Erza sighed. She knew that her sensei was right, but that didn't make her any more comfortable using her _Telekinesis_. With a heavy, overexaggerated sigh, Erza concentrated on the weapons strewn about and activated her natural and hated magic. The weapons slowly began to rise up into the air and formed a floating row of steel in front of her. One by one, she dismissed the weapons back into her requip space and she released her magic with a sigh of relief. Every time she used her _Telekinesis_ all she could do was imagine every way that things could go wrong and how she could end up hurting people. The first time Kuzan had her try practicing her control she had blown a hole in the man's chest with a rock. If it had been anyone else she would have killed them, but Kuzan had just told Erza to turn away from the town and try again without batting an eye. She had gotten better, but she was a long way from comfortable with it.

"You know that it'd be easier if you didn't leave so many weapons lying around," Kuzan told her with a hint of a smirk.

Erza crossed her arm and pouted slightly. "Swapping is harder than just summoning. I can always just pick them up later," she argued as they headed back to the bench to join up with Ur and her students.

"That's why you have to practice. You're the one that wanted to learn how to fight with _Requip Magic_ , don't go half-assing it now," Kuzan chided.

From the bench, Ur let out a very unladylike snort. "Never thought I'd see the day that _you'd_ get on someone's case about half-assing something, Mister 'One o'clock is considered morning.'"

"I'd like to point out that I haven't done that in months," Kuzan replied as he sat down next to Ur. Erza grabbed a water bottle and sat down on Kuzan's other side and Gray claimed Ur's left when he arrived. Lyon choose to continue to sulk in his own chair. The five of them sat like that for a while, letting the kids cool down from their training and the adults to relax without having to keep one eye on their students.

The nice little scene they had was broken after Ur took a glance up at the sun and rose to her feet with a stretch and announced, "I gotta get going. Don't want to keep Master Makarov waiting."

Kuzan lazily opened one eye to glance at Ur. "You're just going to be gone for the night, right?"

"Should be. Thanks again for watching the kids for me. I'm sure they'll be on their _best_ behavior," she said with a stern look shot at both boys. Gray's back straightened and he nodded vigorously. Lyon tried to act nonchalant, but Ur saw him unconsciously lose his slouch. At least his disrespect wasn't spreading beyond her. That had to count for something. "I'll let you know if I have to stay an extra day."

"Okay. Have found with your council meeting," Kuzan unenthusiastically said with an equally enthusiastic wave.

"Ugh. Maybe if I manage to smuggle in some vodka I will," Ur replied as she walked away with a lazy wave of her own. She just had to make a quick stop back home for her overnight bag and to set the spare key out under her mat in case Kuzan had lost his copy again before meeting with Makarov at the train station. Sure, he could always make one himself, but that would be rude.

Kuzan turned his one-eyed gaze onto the kids he was now semi-officially in charge of. "You kids want to go screw around in the guild with Cana?" He didn't bother giving them a chance to answer, "Yes? Great. Let's go." Kuzan got to his feet and began to walk towards the guild as the three kids lined up behind him like the good little ducklings they were. Little ducklings that he had no problem unleashing on the denizens of the Fairy Tail guild for some free babysitting while he caught up on his napping. All these early morning training sessions with Erza were really cutting into his self-prescribed daily sixteen hours of sleep.

* * *

Ur and Makarov followed one of the salamander-like council workers through the halls of the Magic Council Fiore Branch Building. It was just as pretentious as its name implied. First you had to travel up into the weird bowl-shaped top of the main building, then you had to wait to be escorted up into the building where the Magic Council actually resided. But they couldn't have a nice, simple, gaudy addition, no they had to have a literal floating building larger than the Fairy Tail guild hovering above the bowl thing that you needed to access by a floating glorified elevator. It didn't even take you directly to the Council! No, you had to fucking _walk_ through the rest of the oversized building to reach the council room right, smack dab in the middle of the damn place!

Makarov noticed Ur's irritation and commented on it, "Not enjoying the trip, Ur?"

"I'd give my good leg to get this stupid meeting over with already and we haven't even seen the damn Council yet," she complained before taking a swig from her "water" bottle. She was already halfway through it and she was seriously debating just pulling out the real bottle, appearances be damned. She was already wearing a pair of heels and a skirt, what more could these people want from her? _She_ was the one letting _them_ loosely affiliate themselves with her, they should be thankful she owned a set of clothes that could pass as formal, let alone actually bother to wear them for this little ceremony. "Why do they have to make such a big deal over the position anyways? It'd be so much easier if they just mailed me the stupid medallion."

"It's the Council. They're incapable of doing anything without at least enough pomp and circumstance to make a royal wedding look tame," Makarov reminded her. He had also dressed up for the occasion with a dark vest over a white shirt under his good cloak—the white one with the furred edges—and a pair of simple black pants. His hat had been removed and his bald crown was now on display. He gave her a mocking smile before he jokingly said, "Even if it's as simple as giving out a medallion." Makarov agreed with Ur's sentiment. One of these days he'd actually fall asleep during one of these meetings. The worker stopped in front of a large pair of double doors that he recognized. "Here we are," he gravely announced before the worker could. Makarov reached under his cloak to pull out a small hip flask and unscrewed the cap. He raised it up towards Ur, "Cheers?"

Ur smirked down at him and tapped her bottle against his flask, "Cheers."

The two drank under the worker's reproachful gaze before putting their drinks away and signaling for the salamander-thing that they were ready.

The worker let out a disapproving huff before making sure that it looked presentable and opened the door. "Now approaching: Wizard Saint and Master of Fairy Tail Makarov 'The Titan' Dreyar and S-Class Mage of Fairy Tail Ur 'Ice Rose' Milkovich!"

* * *

"That was the most idiotic thing I've ever had to put up with in my entire life," Ur declared to the mostly empty hotel bar for the third time that hour. She had swapped back to her usual attire and had left the stupid skirt crumpled on her bed. The heels had gone straight into the trash, which she planned on burning later. After she had finally gotten comfortable, Ur made a beeline to the bar and that's where Makarov had found her two hours later.

Makarov himself had spent his time catching up with his old team member and current Magic Council member Yajima. Standing only slightly taller than Makarov himself and at the same age, Yajima was a bald man with large, thick gray eyebrows and a matching toothbrush moustache that was wearing a striped, brown long-sleeve shirt and a three-pronged black hat. The two had decided to retire to the bar for some drinks when they came across Ur sitting by her lonesome. Makarov had introduced the pair and they both learned something about Ur.

She was a talkative drunk.

"Hey, Yajima-san, are all the Council meetings that boring and stupid or did you guys make it extra dry just for me?" Ur asked the latest in her line of questions that ranged from "How did a former Fairy Tail member end up on the Magic Council?" to "Was Porlyusica a bossy bitch when you were working together or is that a new development?" Her questions were only broken up with her complaints about the Magic Council and having to go through one of their ceremonies that was more pointless than a snowball.

Yajima smiled good naturedly. "They're all that boring. Even when we get called in to hold trials everything is usually decided beforehand so it's all a formality. Makes all that worrying we did when we were younger seem foolish now, huh, Maky?" he chuckled with a nudge to Makarov's side, ignoring his warning look.

Unfortunately for Makarov, Ur had caught onto what Yajima was implying. "Oh? Did you guys get into a lot of trouble back when you were a team?" she asked with a glint in her eyes. This was a chance to learn all those old embarrassing stories from Makarov's youth he had to have. Stories of a misspent youth! There was no greater power over an old man!

Makarov coughed into his fist and tried to seem uninterested. "I'm sure you don't want to hear any of those old stories," he insisted. He kicked Yajima under the bar to make sure his old friend didn't want to tell any of them either. He had an image to uphold these days. The last thing he needed was stories about his destructive misadventures getting out to the guild or—gods forbid—any of the impressionable children in the guild.

"Oh, but I do~" Ur practically purred out as she leaned forward more than necessary and leaning on her arms to push her breasts up. "And I'm sure that Yajima-san would love to reminisce on your glory days."

"Indeed, I would," Yajima said with a glint in his usually closed eyes. Makarov recognized that glint. He was planning on getting revenge for the various shenanigans he had pulled when they were rivals! Damn him!

Yajima took a sip of his drink before beginning. "Now, back when we were a team, you have to understand that Maky was the only S-Class mage among us at first so we usually took on the harder regular jobs or the easier S-Class jobs. That led to them leaning more to the dangerous and destructive side of things, but even then, our jobs normally went above and beyond what was called for." He chuckled, "I think the only reason we ever made any money was because the jobs paid so much. Now, I use _Flattening Magic,"_ Yajima demonstrated by holding up his hand and activating his magic. When he turned his hand sideways, all that could be seen of it was a thin line that led down to his normally proportioned arm. "So Bob and I—he uses _Phasing Magic_ by the way—were usually sent ahead to scout out what we were getting into while Maky and Goldmine hung back until something needed smashed and Porylusica waited after them to fix anything they broke that wasn't supposed to be broken. This one time, I had gone and slipped through a crack in the door to spy on this group of shady looking guys that we suspected were slave smugglers from Bosco—they were a lot bolder back in the day. Anyways, I tell the rest of the team that they were our guys and that I had a plan on how we could take them down."

By this point, Makarov's head was face down on the bar. He remembered the job Yajima was talking about and knew where this was going. Meanwhile, Ur was listening with rapt attention, her drink forgotten by her side.

Yajima was struggling to keep his smile hidden as he continued. "I never got past the part where there weren't any slaves in the room before Maky's giant fist punches through the wall. Suddenly, I'm across the room, there's a giant hole in the wall, and Maky's standing there with this big, smug smile on his face holding up a giant fist next to him while everyone, both us and the slavers, are staring at him in shock. And he says," Yajima wasn't bothering to hide his smile at this point and Makarov's face had gone red in embarrassment. "Who wants the first ride on my fist?"

Ur started howling with laughter. She put her head down on the bar and pounded it with her fist as tears rolled down her face. The thought of Makarov saying such an obvious innuendo completely seriously proved too much for her and she ended up falling off her stool and collapsed on the floor which had no effect on her laughter other than to make her roll side to side to try and contain it. Makarov's entire head had turned red and he glared at Yajima. "I wish you had hit your head when I sent you flying back then."

Yajima chuckled. "And miss this?" he asked with a gesture to where Ur was trying to pull herself up into her seat but kept losing her grip whenever she got a look at Makarov. "I would have stayed awake long enough out of spite just to hear you say that."

"In my defense, it sounded much better in my head," Makarov weakly protested.

"Keep telling yourself that," Yajima said as he took a sip of his drink. No matter how many times he told that story it still made everything taste sweeter. Revenge truly was the greatest spice.

Ur eventually managed to pull herself together and get back into her chair, although she kept bursting into fits of giggles from time to time, much to Makarov's annoyance. Makarov loudly cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Moving on! How does it feel to be one of the Wizard Saints, Ur?"

"Not really that different, you know? Like," she started to make lazy motions with her hand, "I get that it's an important position and all and that the Council's wanted me on it since back when I was part of a guild, but all that's really changed is that I got this fancy medal now." Ur pulled out her Ten Wizard Saints medallion and spun it on the bar. She set her chin down on the bar and watched it spin with an air of melancholy around her. "Do I really deserve this, though? There's plenty of stronger mages out there than me. Hell, we've got three of them in our own guild, and you're the only one who's a Wizard Saint, Master. Kinda seems arbitrary to me."

Makarov hummed in thought at her words. He understood where she was coming from. Back when he had first received the position he had had similar doubts. But he had gotten over those feelings in time. Age truly was the greatest teacher, but how could he put what he had learned into words so that she could understand? Makarov never figured it out as Yajima came to his rescue. Good old Yajima. Maybe he wouldn't poison his ramen too badly for telling Ur the infamous 'Giant Fisting' story. Just enough to leave him on the toilet for a couple of days instead of the week he had been planning. Had to remind him who was still top dog around here, after all.

"While magic power is an important factor in choosing a Wizard Saint, there is more to it than that," Yajima explained. "We also take into account a mage's reputation, their position in the world, personality, and more. If everything was based on just raw power then we'd devolve into a bunch of arguments over who was stronger than who, and what the most equal situation would be to compare them with, and how different magics came into play, and how technique and skill would come into play, and it would just end up being a big mess where no one would ever agree on anything. And while the Council does like everything to be organized and categorized, we aren't willing to put up with _that_ mess over something as meaningless as power rankings." He said with a self-deprecating smile.

"It's true, Ur," Makarov chimed in, "There are some real monsters in the Wizard Saints, the Four Gods of Ishgar among them, but no matter what they say about us or how much they argue, it doesn't change the fact that of the Wizard Saints, only two of them hold the title of the strongest mage in one of the cardinal directions." A large grin grew under Makarov's moustache, "And God Serena isn't one of them."

"It does make him quite angry when it's brought up to him," Yajima mentioned with a smaller grin.

Ur stared at the two old men as her slightly drunk mind processed what they were saying. "Wait, you mean that…"

"Yep. Draculos Hyberion, second among the Four Gods of Ishgar and the Strongest Man in the East and Wolfheim, third among the Four Gods of Ishgar and the Strongest Man in the South. For all the power that he holds as the strongest among the Four Gods of Ishgar, God Serena has never challenged Gildarts for his title. Neither has Warrod for that matter, but he's retired and prefers to stay that way."

Ur let out an appreciative whistle. "I guess I can see why you wouldn't want a womanizing, forgetful, destructive, old bastard like Gildarts representing the Council."

Makarov nodded his head and hummed in agreement. Gildarts was already rough enough on Fairy Tail's reputation and they were known for being a bunch of over-the-top, destructive hooligans. The last thing the Council would want would be _another_ Fairy Tail member in the Wizard Saints. They only accepted Warrrod because they _couldn't_ ignore one of the Gods of Ishgar and Makarov had only gotten in after he had been made Guild Master and had stopped going out on jobs.

Ur downed the rest of her drink and slung her arms around the two old men's shoulders. "Well enough of this Council bullshit. Let's go hit the town! Fairy Tail style!"

The gray-haired men looked at Ur in surprise. "I don't really think—" Yajima began, only for Ur to tighten her hold around his neck and cut him off.

"Come on. Kuzan's got the kids tonight and I've seen more lively people in a graveyard than this place. Besides," Ur's grin grew more than a little feral, "you were just telling me that you two were a couple of hell-raisers when you were younger. I'm sure you've still got more than a little of that fire left in ya."

The two weren't given any chance to protest as Ur dragged them out into the night. There were bars to hit up and drinks to drink and they were burning moonlight. This was the first time off she had had from her students in a while and they weren't around to see their respectable teacher get into some wild shenanigans or the aftermath of said shenanigans, so she was going to use this chance to its fullest. Kuzan would be able to handle whatever they threw at him anyways. He was a reliable guy like that.

* * *

Kuzan rubbed the bridge of his nose as he stared at the four vaguely child-shaped blobs of mud in front of him. He was _not_ getting paid enough for this. "I don't care what happened, I don't care how it happened, and I _especially_ don't care who's fault it was. What I do care about is how fast you four rugrats are going to get into the bath and scrub off every inch of mud, dirt, and whatever else you're coated in until you're all so clean that you'll squeak with every step you take. Understood?"

"But—"

Kuzan glared down at the Lyon-shaped blob that had opened its mouth. "That wasn't a question."

The four blobs rapidly nodded their heads before rushing out and getting mud all over the place as they did, making Kuzan's headache return. He should have pretended to be asleep when he heard them squish their way towards him. He settled back down and started to drift back to sleep, but the sound of children arguing over who got to go first kept him awake. "For the love of…"

A few minutes later, four naked mud blobs were tossed into the large tub in Ur's house to the cry of "you're all first!" followed by four bars of soap that hit the blobs in the head. Kuzan shut the door behind him and headed back to his nap. There. Problem solved.

* * *

The next day, when Ur and Makarov got back from their Council meeting, Fairy Tail had a party to celebrate Ur's status as one of the Wizard Saints. Lyon was impressed by Ur's new status and actually considered listening to her. Gray lost his clothes and got into a mock fight with Lyon that ended with the both of them frozen together by Ur. Erza was ordered not to wear her armor during the party and to relax and enjoy herself. She did until someone bumped into her and made her drop her strawberry cake, causing her to wreak havoc through the guild until she was frozen by Kuzan. Macao and Wakaba gave Cana her first taste of alcohol that she found enjoyable and proceeded to get drunk off her ass for the first time. The two older mages found this hilarious until Ur froze them for giving alcohol to a minor. Kuzan spent the party drinking and calling Ur "Saint Ur" much to her exasperation and annoyance as she couldn't freeze him solid in retaliation.

The party ended with everyone passed out around the guild, and Ur and Kuzan sleeping next to each other back by their table.

* * *

 **Omake: Gildarts's Problem**

Kuzan and Ur sat in the middle of Fairy Tail calmly drinking their tea as they ignored the chaos going on around them. Makarov had found a pink-haired kid who could use magic wandering through Magnolia Town on his way to the guild and had invited him to join Fairy Tail. The boy's name was Natsu, and he fit right into the guild if the way he was already getting into fights with everyone else his age was any indication.

Ah, the exuberance of youth.

"So, what do you think of our newest member?" Makarov asked the two Ice Mages.

"He's certainly an excitable one, isn't he?" Ur said.

"More of a loud one if you ask me," Kuzan said as Natsu's shouts of challenge rang out through the guild. "He's only been here for less than an hour and he's already challenged Erza to a fight six times since he's met her."

"Erza, fight me!"

"Make it seven," Kuzan deadpanned.

Makarov chuckled at that. "That he has. So," his expression grew serious as he leaned in closer to the two S-Class mages, "which one of you is taking him in?"

"W-what?!" Ur shouted in surprise as Kuzan choked on his tea. Noticing all the attention on them, Ur lowered her voice, but that didn't get rid of any of the shock in it. "What the hell are you on about, Master? What makes you think that one of us is going to take in Natsu?"

Makarov waved off her concerns, "That's the way things have been going every time a new kid shows up around here. Whenever Gildarts comes around, little Cana-chan hovers around him like a lost puppy, you've got your two students, and Kuzan jumped at the chance to take care of Erza-chan. So, it's only logical that someone is going to be taking care of Natsu. Now, which one of you is it going to be?" Makarov really wanted to know. He had a decent amount of money riding on their answer.

Kuzan and Ur looked at each other and then looked over to where Natsu was running around with flames on his hands and fire streaming from his mouth. The ice using pair quickly looked away from the energetic fire boy before they were caught staring.

"I think that sounds like Gildarts's problem," Kuzan said before burying his head into the paper he had already finished reading an hour ago. Ur nodded her agreement and stole the funny pages from Kuzan, suddenly incredibly interested in whether the one kid would finally get to kick the football or not.

* * *

 **A/N: So this was supposed to come out on Halloween, but then it didn't. And then it got delayed some more by tests. Oops. Ur is now a Wizard Saint and hat omake is how Natsu joined Fairy Tail, so next chapter the Strauss siblings will be joining the guild and Happy will be hatched and after that will be the S-Class trial where Laxus is promoted. Probably. I might combine the two, I'm not sure yet. Also, I still need a beta to help me clean up my writing** _ **hint hint.**_ **If you're interested in that then PM, the competition is nothing to be afraid of. Literally. There is none. Till then, later.**


	9. Chapter 9: Newbies

**The Blue Pheasant Flies On**

 **Chapter 9: Newbies**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor One Piece they belong to Mashima Hiro and Oda Eiichiro respectively**

* * *

 **Magnolia Town, X778**

Kuzan and Erza slowly made their way back to Magnolia Town from their latest job. Kuzan was content to let Erza set the pace of their walk while she excitedly recounted the events of the job despite him being there and having witnessed it first-hand. He didn't mind. It was cute to watch her swing around an imaginary weapon and add sound effects to her story. This had been the first job he had let her complete entirely by herself and she had completed it perfectly, so he was letting her indulge a little. It was practically tradition to exaggerate the events of your adventures to others, after all, they weren't there to know any better. He certainly had after his first pirate battle. The way he told it, there had been four dozen ships armed with at least fifty pirates each and he had managed to destroy every ship and personally slew the captain of each one instead of the two small ships they had ambushed and one man he had killed with a lucky pistol shot after dropping his sword in terror. Of course, after he had eaten his Devil Fruit that was well within his abilities, but back then all he had was a sword and pistol on his hips and a crisp white uniform to his name. If Erza wanted to say that she handily defeated seventy-five vulcans instead of twenty-five then it would hypocritical of him to stop her and he was trying to set a good example.

A fond smile briefly flashed over Kuzan's face as he let Erza's words wash over him. It was nice to see her act like this. He just wished she wouldn't do it when it was only the two of them. Around everyone else in the guild she was still closed off and such a stickler for the rules. Being stronger than most of the kids her age didn't help either. It just made it harder for her to relate to them. The only person stronger than her around her age was Laxus but the teen was too much of a moody asshole to get along with. Every time he thought she was starting to relax around the Fairy Tail kids she would freeze up and retreat back into her shell. Kuzan had never brought it up, but he suspected that Erza had friends with her when she was a slave. Friends who hadn't escaped with her. He didn't want to pry into her past—avoiding hypocrisy again—but he had brought up the subject of moving on without others. She hadn't taken that well, and he quickly dropped the subject.

He had asked Ur to keep an eye on her and to maybe offer a shoulder to cry on since she was far more empathetic than he would ever be and Erza might open up more to a mother figure than a teacher figure. The Ice Mage had readily accepted, but had had an equal amount of luck with her. She had at least made enough progress with Erza for her to let Ur into her life as a maternal figure; letting her do things like showing her how to braid hair and talking to her about similar girl-things that left Kuzan lost, confused, and several hundred jewels poorer, but ended with Erza smiling and laughing along with Ur. The little redhead had even added several things to her closet that weren't made of metal or magic-enhancing cloth. And if Ur got to experience somethings she should have with her own daughter and it erased some of the lines on her face then that was just an added little bonus.

Having to take care of Gray and Lyon during their little outings was something he could do without though. Kuzan swore that he could sew clothes into Gray's skin and the little bastard would still manage to strip himself at the least opportune moment. The amount of times concerned parents had yelled at him for teaching him such perverted things… Gray wasn't even his kid, dammit!

And Lyon was just as much of an asshole as Laxus with twice the moodiness ever since he finally lost to Gray. He didn't hate the kid, but the amount of restraint it was starting to take to keep himself from punting Lyon across town whenever he was a dick to Ur was becoming too much, even for him.

The worst part was watching what it did to Ur.

Lyon was, and technically is, her first student and it was tearing her up inside to see him act like an ass. No matter what method she tried, she just couldn't reach him. Ever since he lost to Gray he had given her the mother of all cold shoulders. Their conversations had devolved into her trying to get him to listen, and him grunting in response and doing whatever he wanted. Kuzan had wanted to smack him upside the head several times for the way he treated Ur, but she had always stayed his hand. Their relation was like a ship with a broken keel; too far gone to fix but not broken enough to sink yet. She was trying her damnedest to fix it, but it was just a lost cause and everyone could see it, even Ur, she was just too stubborn to admit it. All that was coming out of it were long nights staying up with a bottle and her feelings of failure. Ur blamed herself for the whole mess, claimed that it was her faults as a teacher that led to this, when it was clear to Kuzan that Lyon had written her off years ago, ever since that night when he came to him and demanded that he become his teacher.

"Sensei?"

Kuzan snapped out of his thoughts and looked down at Erza's worried face. "Yes, Erza?"

"Is something wrong? You were scowling," she asked with a mix of concern and trepidation. Had she done something wrong? She had been talking for a long time. And she might have been embellishing the fight a little—but only to make it more interesting!

Kuzan relaxed his eyebrows from the scowl he hadn't noticed they formed when he had begun thinking about Lyon. He gave Erza a reassuring smile and reached out to ruffle her hair in the way that made it stick out everywhere that he knew she only pretended to hate. "Of course not. The sun was just in my eyes," he lied. "Now, what did you do about the next vulcan?"

His distraction worked, and Erza launched back into her story with the sound of clinking metal and childish battle cries. Kuzan allowed himself to get caught up in the story. This was supposed to be a happy moment. There would be time for brooding over what to do about Lyon and Erza's difficulties making friends later. Now was a time for stories and stopping at the little ice cream parlor for a double scoop of strawberry for Erza, and a scoop of blueberry for himself.

Once they reached Magnolia Town, however, they were met with a surprising sight. The entire town had shifted to create a straight path leading directly to the guild. Kuzan ran a hand through his hair. "Arara, looks like Gildarts is back in town." Great, now they were going to have to make their way through the maze of condensed buildings to get to the ice cream parlor. He sighed, at least he could spend some time catching up with Gildarts later. The younger man was a good drinking companion as long as he didn't destroy his mug and spill beer everywhere. Or destroy the bar and get them kicked out with an expensive repair bill tacked onto their tab right above a lifetime ban. It was a shame too, he had really liked that bar.

* * *

Kuzan finished off the last of his cone right before entering Fairy Tail and massaged his forehead as the brain freeze hit. With the power to turn to ice at his fingertips and a nearly perfect resistance to the cold and he still couldn't stop a brain freeze. There were some serious design flaws with his powers. Behind him, Erza continued to savor her ice cream while wandering over to where the other mages her age had gathered. He let her go with a warning to be careful with her treat, which was honestly more for the benefit of the other kids. He didn't need her getting pissed and wrecking the guild again just because someone bumped into her and made her drop her ice cream again. A quick look around showed a hastily boarded up hole in the back of the guild that let him know that Gildarts must have gone to his house already, so Kuzan made his way over to his and Ur's table and ordered some tea. Ur had taken Gray and Lyon out on a job that was sure to do nothing to relieve the tension between the three, so he had nothing better to do than sit back and hopefully catch up on some sleep. With that thought in mind, Kuzan slid his sleep mask down and let himself drift off.

The sound of shattering wood woke Kuzan up from his nap. He lifted his mask and wasn't surprised to see Gildarts walking through the reopened hole in the back of the guild. The younger man grabbed two beers and made his way over to Kuzan with a big smile on his face. "Hey, old man. Hope I didn't wake you up from your afternoon nap," he said knowing damn well that he had.

Kuzan took the offered drink and checked the clock. Seven-thirty? Three hours was kind of short for a nap, but there wasn't much point in trying to pick up where he left off. The results of that strange dream with him and a giant penguin would forever remain a mystery. "If you didn't want to wake me then you could have used the front door like the rest of us," Kuzan drawled back in reply.

Gildarts just waved him off, "Eh, the hole was already there, doesn't really matter if I open it up again." Kuzan gave him an unconvinced "uh-huh" that Gildarts chose to interpret as agreement. "So what's the big bad Ice Giant been up to these last few weeks? Erza still following you around like a lost puppy?"

Kuzan held up a finger, "One, it's been three months since you were here last."

"Semantics," Gildarts dismissed. "Months are just a broad term for weeks."

"Gods you need a calendar," Kuzan muttered under his breath before raising his second finger. "Two, you don't have any room to talk about lost puppies considering you've got a pair of your own that are always nipping at your heels."

The first time Gildarts had returned to the guild after Ur and Kuzan had joined he had happily taken them out for drinks to catch up on what he had missed and see how they were settling in. Several glasses and a few too many jabs later, Gildarts had been elected to take care of Natsu and Cana while he was there since Kuzan and Ur were too busy playing house with their own "brats" as he called them. The "slightly" inebriated S-Class mage had been more than willing to agree to the challenge and declare that he'll make them strong enough to wipe the floor with Kuzan and Ur's kids. All of them, at the same time! He had also agreed to sign a contract to show them that he was "competey sheariuss" and willing to put his money where his mouth was. Needless to say, the look on Gildarts face the next morning when he read the contract the three of them had signed and exactly how many jewels they were betting would forever hold a special place in Kuzan's heart. And a prominent one in the living rooms of his and Ur's houses in golden picture frames over the fireplaces.

Gildarts had grumbled and cursed at them for taking advantage of a drunken man's ramblings, but had honored the bet and started training Cana and Natsu that day. Granted his version of training seemed to be of a similar vein as Kuzan's, but with less teaching technique and more practical fighting. The two bitched and moaned about it, but Gildarts did take them out to do other things like fishing and shopping. Being semi-responsible for two kids also made him start stopping by the guild more often and taking on less jobs at a time. Now he'd carry them around in a bag on his hip instead of in the sack he used to use.

Gildarts conceded Kuzan's point with a tilt of his head and slight shrug. The older man rolled his eyes and held up his third finger. "Third, she just completed her first solo job—a real one, not the chores we normally send them out on."

"All by herself, huh? Kid's growing up fast. She'll probably make us old timers obsolete in a few years," Gildarts mused. He glanced over to where the kids were goofing around and watched Erza berate Natsu, probably for doing something reckless. She must have been doing it for a while since Natsu hadn't tried to attack him as soon as he walked in. Gildarts returned his attention to Kuzan and gave him a challenging smirk. "Well then, I guess I'll have to take my brats out on more jobs to catch up to your kid, Kuzan."

"My student," Kuzan corrected. She called him Sensei, not Dad. He was her teacher, not her father, despite what everyone in the guild seemed to think. He just let her live in his house, taught her valuable skills and life lessons, and watched over her so that she wouldn't get in trouble. As a teacher. "And you're just going to use them to help you pick up women."

"Hey!" Gildarts protested. "I'll have you know that I don't need a couple of brats to help me get lucky. All I need is my great looks and natural charm."

"I now doubt every story you've ever told me that ended in you sleeping with someone."

Gildarts snorted at Kuzan. "Hahaha. You should look into being a part-time comedian instead of a part-time bum." He told him. A pensive look crossed Gildarts's face. What Kuzan had said had reminded him of something he had noticed before he had left. Something he was really regretting forgetting now that he had remembered. He leaned in a little and motioned for Kuzan to do the same. "Speaking of picking up women, the last time I was out on a job with the kids something funny happened. I was hitting on this hot chick—brunette, chocolate eyes, great rack and a matching ass, with legs for days—"

"Your usual type," Kuzan dryly interrupted. He had settled into position for another one of Gildarts's tales of wooing the various ladies of Earthland; cheek on his fist and eyes half-open. He suspected that he was the only consistent person Gildarts could tell these stories to, and he didn't even do that if Ur was present. The poor, lonely bastard. At least he paid for all the drinks during these stories.

"Shut up." Gildarts shot back. "Anyways, I'm chatting her up and of course I'm with the kids so they come up. Natsu hears his name with those ridiculous dragon ears of his and the two come wandering over to see what we're talking about because they're a couple of nosy little brats."

Almost as if Gildarts had planned it to illustrate his point, Natsu chose that moment to realize that Gildarts was back. He came bounding over to their table with his fist cocked back and a cry of "Gildarts, fight me!" at the sound of his name. Without stopping his story or looking up, Gildarts reached behind his back and grabbed Natsu by the face, pulled him forward over the table, then sent him flipping ass over tin cup into the rafters. He then continued as if nothing had happened.

"So, she does the usual 'oh your kids are so cute' spiel and I explain that I'm their mentor—"

"In the loosest sense of the word."

"—Fuck you, I take great care of them." Natsu fell out of the roof and onto the table with a dull thud. Gildarts stuck a lit match in his mouth and sent him on his way with a pat on the back that launched him across the room. "Like I was saying, I say that I'm their mentor not their father and I see Cana flinch out of the corner of my eye. I'm not talking about a 'ugh, you're so embarrassing' cringe, it was a full on 'that hurt' flinch. So I give her a closer look and there's just so much hurt in her eyes before she blinks and then it's gone."

Kuzan furrowed his brow and sat up. That sounded like it could be serious. "Did you ask her about it?"

Gildarts sighed in frustration. "Yeah. As soon as I got her alone that night I brought her dad up." He dragged his hand down his face at the memory. "I've gotten a better reaction from a husband walking in on me with his wife." He saw the judgmental look on Kuzan's face. "In my defense, I found out she was married the same time that guy found out she was cheating on him with a stranger." Gildarts shook his head. He was getting off track. "So! I backtrack and let her settle down for the night, but that got me thinking about her parents. I know she's an orphan since she was living in the orphanage before I built her and Natsu that house, but I assumed that her parents were dead. What if her dad's actually an asshole that walked out on her and her mom? What should I do about that? Should I try to be her father figure and give her someone to look up to? Would that push her away if I tried?" He thumped his forehead on the table and almost let out a brief burst of magic. Only the knowledge of what Ur and Kuzan would do to him if he destroyed their favorite table lent him enough strength to suppress it.

Kuzan took a sip from his beer as he mulled over Gildarts's dilemma. That was a far more complicated problem than he believed he was qualified to deal with. "I have two questions. One, how the hell did you forget about this until now?"

"Give me a break. We were doing a series of jobs on the way back to the guild and on the next one Natsu almost got eaten by a giant worm thing and the one after that ended in us burning down a forest. Keeping the kids alive seemed a little more important at the time."

That was a fair point, Kuzan would give him that. But that still left his second question. "Two, why ask me? I'm not great at fixing other's personal problems." Erza and Lyon being the two most recent examples, but there had been more when he had been a Marine. Before he had been made an admiral, he had been in charge of his own ship and crew. His solution for those problems had been either send them to the ship doctor or lock them in a room with each other and let them punch it out. That didn't have the best success rate as the seven maimings, four murders, and one awkward time the crewmen had been caught making out could attest to. Gods, he was glad he hadn't waited any longer before checking on them. He would have found them with more than just their shirts off and that was an image he could live without. But he had a sixty-five percent success rate which was more than half and apparently qualified as 'good enough' according to Marines HQ.

Gildarts seemed surprised at his response. "For one, I _just_ remembered it when you brought up using the kids to help me hit on girls—which I don't. And why not you? You've done a great job with raising Erza, so I figure you've got to have some tips I can use. Plus, Ur's raising a couple of boys and I've pretty much got Natsu figured out." The Dragon Slayer wanted to get strong so he could go out and search for Igneel, the dragon who raised him that he considered father. Sure, he had his own abandonment issues from it, but Natsu had a proactive approach to finding him and Gildarts was helping him by training him and keeping an eye peeled and ear to the ground while he was on a solo job for any rumor or sign of a living dragon. Cana's problems seemed like they were going to be a lot harder to solve since she didn't want to talk about them. Plus, you know, Gildarts didn't have any kids so he had no experience with this. But Kuzan had Erza so he had to have some semblance of an idea.

"I haven't made much progress with Erza. She's still clamped up tighter than a giant clam around anyone that isn't me," he argued.

"That's still better than me with Cana." Gildarts pointed out. "Besides, you're starting to go gray. Doesn't that come with some old guy wisdom?"

Kuzan's hand subconsciously rubbed his sideburns. He had taken to shaving more regularly since he started finding silver whiskers. Damn kids were stressing him out. "By that logic you should be talking to Master Makarov," he pointed out.

Gildarts looked at him in confusion before remembering that Kuzan was still pretty new to Fairy Tail. "Oh, yeah, you weren't here when Ivan was still part of the guild." He noticed Kuzan's confusion at the name and elaborated. "Ivan's Master's son. Ten times more of a prick than Laxus and with a bit of a sadistic streak to match. He liked to act real entitled because his dad was the master and pulled a lot of shit. Enough that Makarov eventually had to kick him out." Gildarts grimaced at the memory. "It was really hard on him to do that and he doesn't like to talk about it. Strained his relationship with Laxus too. Kinda of the reason he's such a dick now that I think about it. Anyways, Makarov doesn't like to talk about Ivan so…"

"Best not to bring it up, yeah," Kuzan finished. He leaned back in his chair and sighed again. "I don't know what to tell you. You haven't screwed it up yet, so just keep doing what you're doing, I guess. Just don't bring up her dad or you not being her dad around her. Honestly, Ur'd probably have a better idea of what to do. She did have a daughter."

"Yeah, but that's a pretty painful subject with her." Gildarts matched Kuzan's earlier sigh and finished his drink. "But that's all that I was able to come with too. Ugh, why can't Cana's problems be easy like Natsu's?"

"Everyone's problems can't be fixed with fire and fighting."

"Life would be so much easier if they could though," Gildarts moaned. He signaled for another set of drinks to be brought over and sat back up. "If she won't talk to me about it I can at least check to see if her dad's dead or not. Shouldn't be that hard."

"How do you plan to do that?" Kuzan asked. Partially because he was curious and partially out of obligation. Finding people might have been easier here than in his old world without all the islands scattered across the Blues and the miles of ocean to cover, but that didn't mean much.

"I'll figure out her hometown from the orphanage and work my way backwards from there. If he's dead then he'll be buried in the local cemetery or at least have a gravestone. If he isn't then I'll ask around and see if anyone remembers what he looks like. If that fails, then I'll just ask around for a guy with the last name Alberona. It can't be that common." Gildarts paused for a minute and scratched his chin. "In fact, I think that was my ex's last name. I might pop in and visit her to see if she's got a male relative around the right age if the hometown's a bust."

"That's a conversation I'd love to see." Kuzan lowered his voice and started to (poorly) mimic Gildarts, "Hey, babe, I know we broke up years ago, but I was wondering if you've got any relatives that could have a bastard running around. I adopted his daughter and now I'm hunting him down so I can kick his ass."

"Hahaha. So funny that I forgot how to laugh," Gildarts dully said before flicking a coin through Kuzan's head. "But I do plan on kicking his ass when I find him. Asshole deserves it after bailing on his wife and kid."

"What if it was a one-night stand and he doesn't know about Cana?" Kuzan asked. He was surprised at the scowl that appeared on Gildarts's face.

"Then he should have either done a better job of making sure there wasn't a chance he'd knock up her mom or left a way for her to contact him in case he had," Gildarts said with enough venom in his voice to make Magellan sick. Gildarts's anger loosened his already imperfect control over his magic and he quickly ended up with a destroyed mug in his hand and a wrecked chair under him that left him covered in beer and falling on his ass with a surprised "oof!" Gildarts shook his arms out to try and get some of the beer off of him to no effect and sighed. "Well at least I didn't break the table," he told Kuzan with a lopsided smirk. Fairy Tail's Ace climbed to his feet and rubbed at his bruised butt. "Sorry about that. Have another beer on me while I go and change clothes. When I get back I'll tell you about my job while you kick my ass in darts."

Kuzan raised his mug in acknowledgement. "Sounds like a plan." If Gildarts didn't want to talk about what that was then he wasn't going to ask, but it seemed like his kids weren't the only one with parental abandonment issues.

* * *

Ur walked into the guild with her students in tow and gave it a quick onceover. Hole in the back of the wall that hadn't been boarded up yet? Gildarts was here recently, but had left for his house. There were a few new faces playing with Natsu, Cana, and Erza. She'd have to ask Kuzan or Master about them. Speaking of Kuzan, she saw him snoozing at their table. She sent Gray and Lyon off to meet the new kids and hoped that Lyon wouldn't be too standoffish to kids his age that he just met. After reporting the job done to Makarov and paying the Repair Fund Tax, she grabbed a pair of mugs and headed over to Kuzan.

Kuzan sensed Ur approaching and lifted up one corner of his mask. "Do you want to talk about the job or vent about it?" he asked. The distinction between the two was important. One option let him keep the mask on and he only had to make vague noises to indicate that he hadn't fallen asleep when Ur paused for a breath. He liked it when she vented to him. And judging by the fact that she let him keep his mask on, Ur didn't mind that he didn't pay attention, she was probably glad to have someone to talk at.

"The job was fine. Lyon's was a disrespectful little brat, but it wasn't any worse than usual."

"I know what his usual is like. That isn't a good thing, Ur," Kuzan warned her.

"I'm working on it," she reassured him to little effect. She had been "working on it" for almost a year. Her lack of progress was starting to eat at her. "How was Erza's first job? I assume it went well since she's here in one piece and most of your hair is still black."

Kuzan went with the change in subject. "It went well. She tries to hide it, but this was a major confidence boost for her. If you ask her about it then she'll talk your ear off about how dangerous it was and how easily she handled it."

"How many dragons did she slay?" Ur asked with a knowing smile. She still remembered her first job and the bragging that came with it.

"None since Natsu's here. But she has moved up to a small army of vulcans from the original twenty-five.

Ur chuckled. "Nice to see that she's pacing herself." She slid Kuzan's drink across to him and he grabbed it without removing his mask. "Anything interesting happen before I got here?"

Kuzan shrugged. "Not much. Gildarts apparently found out that Cana's dad may have walked out on her and her mom so now he wants to hunt him down and punch his face it." Kuzan looked over at Ur to gauge her reaction, but she was just nodding in agreement. No, wait. She was cracking her knuckles now. Looked like Gildarts would be getting help with his disappearing dad hunting. He'd have to ask Ur to get a video, or at least a picture, of his ex's face when Gildarts showed up to ask her for help. That man and his girlfriends. He probably had an ex in every town from here to Bosco. And some of those towns probably had more than one. "We also got some new brats running around."

"I noticed. The two white haired ones, right? What's their story?" Ur asked. Kuzan hadn't mentioned taking them in so either Gildarts scooped them up or they were supposed to go to her. She hoped that Gildarts had taken responsibility since if she brought in new kids, even if they weren't students, she would bet her bottom jewel that Lyon would finally snap and leave.

Accepting that there wouldn't be a chance for resting his eyes, Kuzan took off his mask before answering. "Kids' parents are dead and the eldest one stopped a demon from attacking a church. Problem was that the three of them use _Takeover Magic_ and three guesses for which kind the big sister uses. First two don't count."

" _Satan Soul_ ," Ur said with a sinking feeling. She knew where this was going.

"Yeah. Couldn't suppress it completely, so the town turned on her. They bailed and just started wandering around. Eventually made their way here and Master Makarov explained everything. It took a while for the eldest sister to relax and open up around the guild, but she's gotten better now." And wasn't that an understatement. Calling Mira's true personality temperate would be sugarcoating it. Kuzan needed a drink just thinking about it. "Gildarts is taking care of the three of them. He's actually out shopping for clothes with her right now."

Ur had been wondering where the third sibling was. She only saw two heads of white hair in the guild not counting Makarov's. "Which one is which then?"

Kuzan pointed over to the tanned-skinned boy in a blue suit with short hair that was nervously watching Natsu and Gray fight. Gods, they hadn't even been back for five minutes and those two were already going at it. "The brother is the middle child and his name is Elfman. He's got _Takeover: Beast Soul_ , but he can't seem to get more than just his right arm to transform." Kuzan then pointed at the fair-skinned little girl with the bob cut in a pink dress who was laughing at the two boys' antics. "That's the youngest sister, Lisanna. She uses _Takeover: Animal Soul_ and can go full body."

Ur smiled fondly while watching them. "They're a couple of cuties, aren't they?"

Kuzan grunted noncommittedly. "Elfman's pretty quiet and reserved and Lisanna's a sweet girl. Mirajane has apparently decided that Erza is her rival and that's shaping up to be fun."

"Oh, what's the harm in a little friendly competition? It can't be as bad as Natsu and Gray. Who should KNOCK IT OFF!" she yelled the last part over to where Gray and Natsu had started to bust out their respective magics. Ur took a bit of pleasure in watching them stiffen up and try to hide what they were doing. It was cute that they thought they could pull one over on her.

Kuzan took a carefully measured drink from his mug before saying, "You're right about that."

The door chose that moment to be kicked open by a fair-skinned and white-haired girl about Erza's age who was wearing the most _scandalous_ outfit Ur had ever seen a girl that young wearing. A black crop top that looked more like a sports bra than a shirt, and a skimpy one at that. Black leather short-shorts that _barely_ missed the qualifications for underwear. A pair of thigh high black boots?! And was that a fucking _choker_ around her neck?! Ur almost had a stroke.

"I'm back and ready to kick your tin can ass, Erza!" the girl that could only be Mirajane declared to the entire guild. The more sensible ones used the warning to dive behind the closest sturdy object. Erza didn't even say a word before the two of them were forehead to forehead on a table with their hands pushing against their opponent's as curses Ur _certainly_ didn't remember Erza ever using before spilling out of their mouths as they fought for dominance.

"As you can see, they're much, much worse," Kuzan finished and then took a satisfied drink of his beer. That was quite excellent timing if he said so himself. Haki was such a useful and versatile skill.

Gildarts walked in at a much more subdued pace than his newest charge and made his way over to the Ice Mages. "Hey, Ur, welcome back," he greeted with a brief wave.

Gildarts soon regretted that as his words snapped Ur out of the catatonic state she had been in. Dark eyes burning with a fire that even Natsu would find too hot to handle swung his way and suddenly Gildarts had a pair of icicles less than a millimeter from his eyes and held in a pair of hands that were shaking in anger and making him _very_ uncomfortable. "What the _fuck_ did you buy that _child?!_ " she demanded in a hiss of pure malice that promised a future of freezing pain.

Gildarts wanted to hold up his hands to ward off the incarnation of winter's wrath before him, but refrained out of fear that any movement that wasn't his mouth would lead to Porlyusica needing to whip up a new pair of magic eyes in light blue. "I just paid for the clothes. She's the one that picked them out," he defended in an attempt to convince Ur that this wasn't his fault.

It didn't work. Ur leaned in closer and she was honest-to-god _growling_ at him and it was more terrifying than any monster Gildarts had ever faced. "And where did you take her shopping? _A sex shop?!"_

Gildarts's eyes darted over to Kuzan, but he was nowhere to be seen. That damned traitor had thrown him to the wolves! Or, the angry Ice Mage as the case may be. He'd have to rely on his wits to get him out of this... He hoped Porlyusica was fast at making eyes. It couldn't be too hard, right?

"Since I'm clearly incompetent when it comes to shopping, why don't I give you my wallet and you can take the Strauss siblings on a shopping trip and get to know them? That's be a nice 'Welcome to Fairy Tail' thing and you'd get to bond with the new kids," he bribed. "Hell, why don't you take all the kids on the trip. A nice big bonding trip. My treat!" Gildarts suggested with a nervous laugh since the first offer didn't get the icicles any further from his eyes and by the Gods was she getting _closer?!_ "You should get yourself something nice too. You work so hard taking care of your kids—students, I meant students! —and you watch over Natsu and Cana while I'm gone, and have I mentioned how much I appreciate that and you? No? Well then consider this a toke of my appreciation. See, I'm just reaching for my wallet here, no need to tense up. Now I'm pulling out my wallet and setting it on the table." Gildarts did just that and put up his hands. "Now that that's out of the way, why don't you go gather up the kids while I make myself scarce so you don't have to keep looking at me? That sound like a good plan? It's a good plan. I'll get started on it right now."

His eminent disabling avoided (for now,) Gildarts made his way through the nearest guild wall and retreated to his house where he'd hunker down for a few days and then start slowly testing Ur's tolerance of his presence. He hoped Kuzan would be willing to smuggle him alcohol from the guild on a favor system. He didn't have his wallet on him at the moment.

Ur watched Gildarts run away from her and let out a loud sigh of frustration. That man! It was like he and Kuzan were _trying_ to make her go gray before forty. She swore to the gods they would run around in nothing more than their underwear if she let them. What the hell was Gildarts thinking letting Mira get those cloths? That she wanted to be a stripper instead of a mage?! She was thirteen for fuck's sake! She picked up Gildarts's wallet from the table and looked around. Everyone who had been cowering from Erza and Mira earlier had vacated the building when she started threatening Gildarts, so the only ones left were the kids and Makarov, and she could sense him hiding out in his office. She made her way over to the kids and noticed that they were all shaking in place. Apparently, they hadn't stayed because they were brave, but because they were too scared to move. Wonderful. Fantastic first impression there, Ur.

It didn't matter. She could salvage this. Ur looked between the three white-haired mages and introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Ur Milkovich, Gray and Lyon's teacher. What're your names?"

Unsurprisingly, Mirajane was the one to introduce them and she only had a bit of a stutter. "M-my name's Mirajane Strauss, but you can call me Mira. These are my siblings: Elfman and Lisanna."

"Well it's nice to meet the three of you," Ur said with a smile. "I'm sorry if that earlier display frightened you, but Gildarts tends to space out and not pay attention to what he's doing so I had to remind him of what isn't appropriate." She shot a meaningful glance at Mira's outfit that the girl noticed. She tried to pull her "shirt" down so that it covered a bit more, but that only caused a vein to pop on Ur's forehead. "To make up for it, I'm taking everyone out on a shopping trip!" The girls perked up at this while the boys groaned. "No complaining," Ur snapped and the boys instantly clammed up. "Tomorrow, Kuzan and I will take you all around town and we can pick out some new clothes that you'd want to wear. You can take as many as you want and then we'll stop for ice cream after, okay?"

The kids all cheered at that and after telling them to be ready at the guild at eight sharp, Ur retired back to her table. She took possession of Kuzan's mug while she waited for him to come slinking back in the guild and she could inform him that he had volunteered to play pack mule and cat herder tomorrow during the shopping trip as punishment for being stupid enough to let Gildarts buy a kid clothes unsupervised and also because she knew he wouldn't see anything wrong with what Gildarts had bought. He _had_ let Erza get a set of armor for her first set of clothes after all.

Ur shook her head in despair. Why was she the only sensible person in this guild?

* * *

 **Omake: Don't Tell** **Ur**

Gildarts grabbed three drinks from the bartender and made his way over to where Natsu and Cana were sitting. He sat down heavily in his seat and placed the mugs down in front of him. "Here we go. One beer for me, one for Cana, and one rum for Natsu." Gildarts handed out the drinks before pulling out one of the many books of matches he had started carrying on his person since taking in Natsu. He tossed it over to Natsu and the Dragon Slayer eagerly struck the match and ignited his drink. "Now, remember the golden rule about drinking this stuff, guys."

Cana waved him off with one hand as she used the other one to empty her mug already. "Yeah, yeah. Don't tell Ur. We'll add it to the list."

Gildarts laughed at Cana's joke. "There's some things you shouldn't tell her, but I think a list is a bit much."

Cana put down her mug and raised an eyebrow at Gildarts in a silent "Really?" that made him pause for a moment and think. There was all the alcohol he bought them when they went out on jobs and…

* * *

Gildarts stretched as far as he could to keep the giant worm's mouth open while he held Natsu's scarf in a death grip. Far below them he could still hear Cana throwing her cards at the worm while it thrashed around in anger. Of course, the Dragon Slayer was enjoying himself as he launched fireball after fireball down the beast's throat. "How the hell did I let you talk me into this?" Gildarts groaned in annoyance over Natsu's laughter.

Natsu's attacks finally did something more than cause the worm indigestion as it reared back with a roar of pain and dove headfirst to the ground. Cana let out a high-pitched scream as she dodged out of the way and Gildarts felt his eyes bug out of his head. He managed to get out an "Oh shit!" before they plowed into the dirt.

Cana watch watched the ground in concern for several seconds before it exploded outwards in a burst of dirt and worm parts. A filthy Gildarts climbed out of the new hole in the ground with an equally filthy Natsu in his grip and let out a sigh of relief. He dropped Natsu next to Cana and pointed a finger at both of them. "Don't tell Ur!"

* * *

Gildarts carried Natsu and Cana under each arm as he ran through the forest at midnight to keep in front of the raging fire behind them. On the bright side, the fire gave him enough light that he didn't have to run through every tree he came across. He still did, but he did it in precise bursts instead of letting his magic run wild. Over the crackling of the flames he could barely hear Cana yelling at Natsu, "What possessed you to practice a new move in a forest?"

To which Natsu responded, "The fire was going out and nothing was happening so I was bored."

His decision to never let Natsu keep watch unsupervised again made, Gildarts saw an opening in the trees and put on an extra burst of speed. With no more trees in front of him, Gildarts lightly tossed his charges into the clearing and turned around to face the fire. He reared back a fist imbued with his _Crush Magic_ and sent it forward with a punch. All of the trees behind them were destroyed along with the flames. Gildarts let out a sigh of relief before looking back at Natsu and Cana and grimacing.

The two preteens were covered from head to toe in a mix of ash and mud. All the Gildarts could make out were their eyes and _oh boy_ did they look annoyed. Gildarts awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, don't tell Ur about this, okay?"

* * *

Gildarts, Natsu, and Cana ditched their paint cans and started running at the sight of an angry looking squad of Rune Knights running towards them, leaving their slanderous messages about the Magic Council's abilities, competence, and personal hygiene written in bright neon paint behind them and only mostly finished. Gildarts led the way with a cry of "Don't tell Ur!"

* * *

The trio were bent over in exhaustion as they sucked down great lungsful of air after outrunning an avalanche Gildarts had accidently set off when he tripped during their hike. "Don't… tell… Ur…!" he gasped out.

* * *

Gildarts grimaced at the reminder of all the trouble they tended to get into. He slid his beer across to Cana with a shaky grin. "But you won't tell Ur, right?"

Cana accepted the mug with a smirk. "We won't tell Ur."

* * *

 **A/N: Done. Thanks to my new beta, HonsetBender, and everyone else who volunteered. Also, a big thanks to Kraotop for recommending this fic on TV Tropes. That's it for now, later.**


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